BRIDGTON — A significant portion of a memorial bridge for Pondicherry Park was built Saturday.

The Bob Dunning Memorial Bridge will be one of the last improvements made to the park, which occupies about 66 acres in the center of town.

In 2006, the Lakes Environmental Association pitched the idea of the park after Executive Director Peter Lowell noticed there was a large patch of undeveloped woodland in the middle of town. The Loon Echo Land Trust joined the effort to buy the land and turn it into a recreational park with nature trails.

Volunteers used ropes and muscle power to put up 16 bents — assembled bridge pieces containing roof beams, side beams and tie beams — to link the components. Once the bents were brought upright, they were hammered into place.

Lowell said the structure will look like a traditional covered bridge, but it will flare out with a curving walkway to simulate an ocean dory. It was designed by Andy Buck, a Naples timber framer.

“Once he presented it, there wasn’t any further modification,” Lowell said. “We just looked at it and said, ‘OK; that looks great, Andy.’”

Buck also designed informational kiosks and a shelter near the bridge. The shelter was raised in a community event last October.

Side walls will be installed at the bridge for safety purposes, although the upper sides of the walls will be left open. Each tie beam comes from a different tree species, with the bark left on and leaves set to be carved into the pieces to add an educational component.

The bridge is named for Bob Dunning, a Bridgton restoration carpenter and environmental activist who died in 2007. The Ham Foundation Bridge, located behind the Stevens Brook School, was built by Great Northern Docks of Naples and installed last December. It is named for the Kendal and Anna Ham Charitable Foundation, a major donor to the park project.

Carrie Walia, executive director of the Loon Echo Land Trust, said the original scope of the park was 40 acres.

“The project definitely grew with time,” she said.

The park has five access points to recreational trails. Two are off South High Street, opposite the Congregational Church and Bridgton Hospital. The others are near the community center on Depot Street, behind Stevens Brook School and at the end of Willett Road.

Work continues on the Dunning bridge, with an elevated walkway to the structure over Willett Creek mostly completed. Another is needed to allow pedestrians to go from the far side of the bridge into the park.

Lowell said the goal is to complete work on the bridge by the end of the year and give it to the town as a gift next summer. The budget for buying the land, establishing the trails, building the bridges and putting the land into a conservation easement was set at $787,000. The organizations are looking to raise the last $80,000 toward completing the work.

“I think people are really excited about the park,” Lowell said. “I think the whole town’s excited about getting this big bridge in.”

For more information, visit pondicherrypark.org. Walia said photos of the bridge-raising will be available on the site Monday.

mlangeveld@sunjournal.com

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