Hope council is going to the electorate to gain the right to borrow up to $5 million for the new Kawkawa Lake Road Bridge over the Coquihalla River.

The joint project, between the federal, provincial, and municipal governments, to replacement the aging narrow bridge was announced last April.

The MMM Group has been hired for detailed design for a two vehicle lane bridge, with a wide shoulder to serve as a bike lane and a pedestrian sidewalk.

Now the electorate will have its say in a reverse approval process. If 10 per cent of the electorate, estimated at 4979 voters, petition against the plan by filing an Alternative Approval Response Form, council will be hauled from borrowing the cash or have to ask voters again in a formal referendum.

The forms, available at the District Hall or on-line at www.hope.ca, must be received at the district hall by the end of the business day, January 5, 2010.

Council’s request is to borrow an amount not to exceed $5 million, and council is working diligently to keep costs below that mark, noted Mayor Laurie French in a recent interview with the Hope Standard.

The three-way split between governments, estimated at $3 million direct construction costs each, does not include the purchase of property needed to access the new bridge location nor does it include the cost of removing or revamping the old Rambo Bridge.

Brian McKinney, an avid supporter of the bridge as a tourist attraction, and Riley Forman, have been running an on-line tongue-in-cheek video campaign to have council save the structure.

“I personally would love to see the Rambo Bridge saved as part of Hope’s trail system, but what this campaign is really about is getting the discussion going,” says McKinney.

Council has already voted in favour of keeping the bridge in some form but there are a lot of hurdles to be considered before a final decision is made, says the mayor.

“That decision could be made as late as next spring because construction on the new bridge does not impact the current bridge,” says French.

Council has been advised by engineers with the MMM Group of three options for the old Howe wooden truss bridge, says French.

“Number one is to do nothing and someday it will have to come out of the river. Council will have to decide if it is cheaper to do that today or leave it for a future generation.”

The second option is to raise the structure up to the 200-year flood plain level. Raising the old bridge to the same height as the new bridge will avoid flood debris from building up between the two structures – a threat to the new bridge engineers say needs serious consideration.

“Both of those options rely on environmental assessments “as we have a creosote soaked bridge hanging over a river,” adds French. “The fact that the bridge is no longer really needed as a bridge and yet we have left it there may make us subject to increased liability should something happen.”

The third option, putting the Rambo Bridge on display somewhere else in the community, means the creosote comes into play once again, says French. “Creosote is a known carcinogen, where will our responsibility and liability lay in inviting the public onto the structure as a tourist attraction,” questions French.

Costs on all three options range between $100,000 and $300,000.

Over the next few months council will have to consider the cost of saving the bridge in balance with its value as a tourist attraction, adds French.

And there are a few other ideas beyond those of the engineer being floated – this time by Inge Wilson of the Visitor Information Centre, whose visitor advisors answered 913 traveller’s inquires in 2008 about Rambo - First Blood, filmed in Hope over 25 years ago.

Wilson has floated three concepts for councillors to consider in saving the photo op for avid Rambo fans.

Option one, says Wilson, is to try to retain the current entrance onto the bridge with the first set of uprights still in place, the view looking towards the Kawkawa Lake area. Then use this to form a viewing platform over the river with a clear Plexiglas barrier and clear railing that does not detract from photos.

Wilson’s second option would be to “salvage the entrance onto the bridge and the first set of uprights and re-construct them in front of a wall or billboard structure --- the wall or billboard structure could feature a photo reproduction of the current bridge view. Location of this site should be on District of Hope held land – possibly the Coquihalla Campsite or Picnic Site properties adjacent to the current bridge site.”

Option three, adds Wilson, would see a mural artist paint the back drop in the “Trompe-l’œil” style, an art technique involving extremely realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects appear in three-dimensions.