RUMFORD — Replacing the 55-year-old Martin Memorial Bridge at Rumford Point will be delayed until at least the construction season of 2014-15.

Maine Department of Transportation project engineer Leanne Timberlake said state funding is tight right now.

Estimated costs to replace the three-span, 600-foot-long, steel-trussed bridge have ranged from $11.5 million to $13.4 million. To rehabilitate it, the cost was estimated at about $11.3 million, and even extensive work would not provide a wider or taller bridge and would not address the eroded pilings issue, an engineer said at a scoping session held last year.

Because of the substandard height, many trucks have struck the steel “cap” on both ends of the bridge and caused damage.

Timberlake said the MDOT has been working on a preliminary design for a new bridge and expects to hold a public information meeting on the proposals sometime in late March or early April.

Preliminary plans right now call for constructing a steel-girder bridge, similar to the replacement a few years ago of the Ridlonville Bridge that connects Rumford and Mexico.

Those plans also call for moving the Rumford Point bridge parallel to the current one about 60 feet upstream along the Androscoggin River. The bridge is located at the intersection of Routes 2 and 232.

Funding is available to study the bridge’s possible new location and to complete an engineering plan, Timberlake said.

During the past dozen years or so, several similarly styled steel-trussed bridges in the area have been replaced by steel-girder bridges because of the taller and wider trucks that now use them. Another such bridge replacement was the Gilbertville Bridge in Canton. That one also has a snowmobile lane.

Local residents are asking for a similar addition to the Martin Memorial Bridge when it is replaced.

[email protected]