The county and the Montana Department of Transportation argue that Maclay Bridge doesn’t qualify for state or federal transportation funds, the Alliance’s Bob Schweitzer said after the afternoon presentation.

“We’re hoping that the county commissioners would reconsider and say, ‘Wait, there’s information here that we’re not aware of. There’s federal funding availability that we’ve been told all along is not available, and it is available,' ” Schweitzer said.

Jai Kim offered no estimated costs for any but the first option, which would rehabilitate the truss bridge with arches to add “redundancy” to the main span, giving it a live load capacity of 36 tons. The current weight limit is 11 tons, requiring school buses and fire trucks to slow to 5 mph to cross.

Kim equated redundancy to adding a third leg to a person who won’t fall if one of the other legs is broken. That would cost up to $1.26 million. A “1A” option would rehabilitate or replace the “pony truss” bridge connected to the main span for up to $800,000.

Stewart said the 1A alternative is the one most consistent with the Target Range Neighborhood Plan and is “one that I think many in the neighborhood would prefer.”

The cost estimate for a new South Avenue Bridge is $13.1 million.