enlarge Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

A group walks the proposed path of a 1.25-mile trail along the Androscoggin River last week. The so-called “Riverwalk” would connect Brunswick and Topsham using the Frank Wood Bridge and the historic Swinging Bridge as well as existing roads and sidewalks.

enlarge Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Nancy Randolph, left, and Cathy Lamb are members of a committee planning a 1.25-mile riverfront walking trail connecting Brunswick and Topsham. In the background near the Frank Wood Bridge are Peter Baecher, left, Alison Harris and Frederick Wigand.

BRUNSWICK — Plans for a riverfront walking trail linking Brunswick and Topsham have been upgraded, driving costs up to about $500,000, according to committee members overseeing the project.

"Our entire effort has been to do this right," said Patrick O'Regan, a member of the Androscoggin Brunswick-Topsham Riverwalk Advisory Committee.

The so-called "Riverwalk" trail, 1.25 miles long, is meant to be a safe, in-town walking loop that would connect Brunswick and Topsham using existing bridges, roads and sidewalks. Along the way, walkers would have views of the Androscoggin River and its wildlife and of river waters cascading over a hydroelectric dam.

In addition to scenic views, the trail would incorporate the recently restored Swinging Bridge, a pedestrian footbridge.

"People for years have been driving at 45 miles per hour past this area and never stopped to look at the natural beauty," O'Regan said.

The 12-member committee, formed last year, decided early in its deliberations to make the entire trail accessible to wheelchairs, a decision that played a role in driving up project costs. Because of that decision, a wooded section of the trail on the Topsham side of the river needed to be paved.

Committee members got a huge boost last month when the Alfred Senter Fund donated $20,000 toward the project. But it wasn't until recently that committee members started to realize that to make it successful, the project needed a lot more financial support than was originally envisioned.

"I thought this was going to be a one-year project when I joined the committee; now it's probably going to be more like two or three years," O'Regan said.

Nancy Randolph, co-chairwoman of the committee, said the project could take as long as 10 years to complete.

That's because the committee wants to build sidewalks on Summer Street in Topsham -- a part of the trail -- and pave a wooded section of the trail that is owned by Florida Power & Light.

FPL officials, who own the hydroelectric dam, will meet with the committee this month to discuss granting a right of way across FPL land. Randolph and O'Regan said FPL officials have been receptive to their plans.

In addition, the committee wants to make improvements to Cabot Street, a narrow road that runs through the parking lot of the Fort Andross office building, and wants to build a small park near the Border Trust Business Center in Topsham.

Signs noting the natural and historic significance of Riverwalk, as well as benches, would be installed along the trail.

"It's just a little bit of everything that adds up to a lot," Randolph said.

Though donations from organizations such as the Senter Fund will help, Randolph said the committee is banking on getting a huge matching grant from the Maine Department of Transportation.

State transportation officials, she said, have encouraged the towns to apply this spring for a matching federal enhancement grant that would provide $400,000 in federal money.

Randolph said the committee would have to raise the remaining $100,000 -- the local match.

Committee member Cathy Lamb said she has walked the proposed loop many times, and noted the renovated Frank Wood Bridge, which connects downtown Brunswick and downtown Topsham and is also known as the Green Bridge, has new views of the dam and the river.

"It will provide a very different look of the area for walkers," Lamb said. "Seeing the waters rushing under the Green Bridge ,,, it's lovely."

Staff Writer Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 725-8795 or at:

dhoey@pressherald.com