PAWTUCKET – The task force that Mayor James E. Doyle appointed last year to design a new bridge over the Pawtucket River has completed its work, unveiling a $100 million arched span with architectural details that mirror the grand buildings of Pawtucket’s past, including City Hall.

Richard Kazarian – an art historian and Pawtucket businessman who chaired the 20-member task force – presented a preview of the plans during a task force meeting last week. The session, at the downtown Pawtucket Visitors Center, was also attended by city and state officials.

The bridge will become part of Interstate 95, between exits 27 and 28. Its construction is scheduled to start later this year and take about two years to complete, according to officials from the R.I. Department of Transportation (DOT). Some 80 percent Federal Highway Administration funds and 20 percent DOT dollars will be used to construct it.

Although state officials say the existing Pawtucket River Bridge is still safe, the DOT has limited traffic on the 51-year-old span – first to vehicles weighing no more than 22 tons, then, in May, to no more than 18 tons (READ MORE) – forcing large trucks and other heavy vehicles to find alternate routes through and around Pawtucket. (More recently, the DOT also has restricted truck traffic on another Pawtucket span: the nearby Division Street Bridge, off I-95.)

The precarious state of the current economy has not affected the scope of the design, Kazarian said. He noted that some of Pawtucket’s most “majestic” buildings were constructed with New Deal funding during an even more difficult economic time, the Great Depression. City Hall, McCoy Stadium and Shea High School are among the examples he cited.

The task force intentionally borrowed motifs from such structures, Kazarian said. For example, Art Deco eagles adorn City Hall, and the four stone pillars on the new bridge will each be topped with a representation of an eagle’s wing similar to that seen on the City Hall tower.

Viewed from a distance downstream, the bridge will be marked by a graceful silvery arch over the water, made of metalized steel and illuminated at night with crystal-blue light-emitting diode (LED) lighting.

Task force subcommittees are working on landscaping, signage and local art, such as sculptures, to complement the span, said Kazarian, who also chairs the city’s Riverfront Commission.

To avoid a “dark and dreary” atmosphere such as that pedestrians encounter beneath the existing bridge, he noted, the task force spent a lot of time working on its design for the underside of the new bridge, where the state bike path and other riverfront development are likely to be situated.

News and information from the City of Pawtucket are available at www.PawtucketRI.com. Information from the R.I. Department of Transportation – including DOT updates on the status of Rhode Island’s bridges and the department’s proposed stimulus projects – is available at www.dot.ri.gov.

Newport Collaborative Architects Inc., founded in 1981, has offices on Washington Square in Newport and Exchange Street in Providence. NCA has received more than 70 design awards. To learn more, visit www.NCArchitects.com.