FARGO – City officials here believe the metro area’s only toll bridge will be free to cross by the end of this week or early next week.

A judge required owners of the Bridge Co. in Fargo to post a $320,000 bond by Friday to continue their legal appeal. If not, the cities of Fargo and Moorhead will own the bridge over the Red River.

“It has been mutually agreed upon by both cities that the toll will be removed at that time, and crossing the bridge will be free of charge from that point forward,” Transportation Engineer Jeremy Gorden said in a letter to homeowners near the 12th Avenue North bridge.

He told the Forum that the mayors of Moorhead and Fargo will make an official announcement when the cities take possession of the bridge.

It’s the only bridge crossing the Red between the First Avenue North bridge downtown and the Broadway North bridge near 37th Avenue North. The toll is 75 cents.

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Bridge Co. has owned the bridge since the late 1980s as part of a contract with Fargo and Moorhead to build and operate the bridge. That contract expired a year ago, and the company lost a lawsuit filed by the city of Moorhead to gain possession of the bridge in September.

In January, Cass County District Judge Frank Racek required the company to post a bond before it can appeal the case before the state Supreme Court.

The money is meant to pay for damages to the public of not having the bridge, but Bridge Co. owners complained that amount was too high.

Bridge Co. owners could not be reached for comment.

Gorden said the city will put in additional stop signs to make the entrance to the bridge on Elm Street an all-way stop instead of the two-way stop it is now.

He doesn’t expect a huge volume of additional traffic when the toll ends because the section of 12th Avenue immediately west of the bridge has a lot of stop signs.

Traffic engineers will install counters on 12th later this year to find out the actual traffic impact.

The bridge is in relatively good shape with only some minor work needed, based on inspections by the city of Moorhead, Gorden said.