OLD TOWN — Frequent springtime flooding has prompted a proposed $1.6 million renovation of a troublesome bridge on the Pushaw Lake road, according to city officials.

Public Works Director John Ellis said Thursday that the project would involve raising the surface of the bridge by just over 2 feet to prevent the flooding, which at times leaves the road impassable.

“They have an awfully hard time up there some years,” Ellis said of people who live in the area. “The road may still flood a little in the spring, but it might be more like 2 inches instead of 2 feet.”

George Mossey, who has spent summers on nearby Woodland Avenue since 1958 and lived there full time for five years, said the prospect of the new bridge had many people in the area excited. He estimated 108 families have to cross the sunken trestle to get to their homes.

“It’s been a long time coming with a lot of letters back and forth to the state,” Mossey said. “It was OK when there was just a few of us here, but now it can be dangerous when people can’t get in or out.”

The bridge project is set to be part of the state’s 2000-2001 transportation plan, Ellis said.

About two-thirds of the funding would come from the Maine Department of Transportation. The city must come up with $477,000 of the $1.59 million price tag, Ellis said.

The bridge, about 1,500 feet long, is built on wooden pylons that pass through several feet of peat moss. The hemlock planks on the bridge’s surface are covered with a layer of gravel and pavement.

To raise the bridge, state workers would remove the top two layers, build up the road surface with about 2 feet of chipped tires, and replace the layers of gravel and pavement, Ellis said. The tires are used instead of gravel to keep the addition as light as possible, he explained.

The project, if it gains final approval, should be completed by 2001, he said.