BETHEL — Owners of a small family-owned and run campground beside the Androscoggin River and Route 2 have proposed to build a 500-foot-long suspension bridge for recreational access to a large island in the river they also own.

Jeff and Patricia Parsons of Bethel Outdoor Adventures and Campground at 121 Mayville Road (Route 2) have also proposed to build the Maine Mineralogy Expeditions Park, and are seeking a site plan amendment for both the bridge and the park from Bethel planners. They also seek a shoreland zone permit for the bridge.

Planners started work on the projects at their July 14 meeting and will continue at their next board meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 28, in the town office.

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection already approved the bridge project in April.

According to those documents, the Parsons want to build a 2-foot-wide by 500-foot-long, three-cable design bridge, also known as a Burma bridge.

Bethel Code Enforcement Officer Bob Folsom said Wednesday afternoon that the Burma bridge is similar to those from the World War II area.

Estimated to cost $22,000, the bridge is anticipated to be built for less, according to the project’s site plan amendment application.

Engineer Jim Sysko of Newry designed the span.

The bridge will be built in three parts with the first 150-foot section built from a 9 feet long by 6 feet wide by 3 feet thick anchoring abutment to be buried 150 feet from the river bank. The other end of that section will be a 6 feet wide by 6 feet long support tower constructed of steel and set on three concrete footings.

The second and main span of the bridge will extend 250 feet from this tower across the main channel of the river and connect to a second tower on a small island, which is actually the bigger island.

“They are really one and the same island, it is just that at some water levels there is water between them,” Jeff Parsons states in a June 2 letter to the Maine Historic Preservation Commission in Augusta.

The third bridge section will be 150 feet long and will extend from the small island to a second abutment on Hastings Island, built to the same dimensions as the first abutment and buried likewise.

The MDEP project description states that the bridge will be built so that the lowest point of the lowest cable is a foot higher than the 100-year floodplain level.

In their request for proposal dated June 8, the Parsons said their campground is composed of 12 acres on the mainland and a 50-acre island in the middle of the Androscoggin. The bridge will access a primitive trail around the island, giving campers another hiking and recreation option.

Pending town planners approval of the project, construction will start in September.

The Maine Mineralogy Expeditions Park is part of an existing service run by Bethel Outdoor Adventures, according to the Parson’s Bethel site plan amendment application.

It consists of a replenished pile of mine tailings, a sluiceway and more than 18 work stations for discovering gemstones.

This service, the application states, has operated for several years on-site and Bethel Outdoor Adventures have arranged trips to area mines, such as the Bumpus Mine in Albany.

To shield people from the sun and weather, the BOA site features a tent, which is proposed to be replaced with a permanent octagon-shaped pole barn-style pavilion at an estimated but not anticipated cost of $10,000.

Currently, Maine Mineralogy Expeditions and its park operate from May to October as weather permits.

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