The Mayor Frank Ratigan Memorial Bridge is seen here on Tuesday. (Enterprise photo – Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE – A painting crew is repainting the Mayor Frank Ratigan Memorial Bridge on State Route 3 this week.

The bridge is part of the George LaPan Highway and is one of the main routes into the village’s downtown area. Part of the right lane of the bridge is closed to traffic. One of the work trucks is parked there.

The work is being performed by Amstar of Western New York and paid for by the state Department of Transportation.

Frank Werner, president of DC9 Local 201, said workers performed a five-step process and began sandblasting the old paint on Tuesday.

The underside of the bridge where construction crews are working has been completely sealed with tarps and metal sheets to contain the material they dislodge and keep it out of the Saranac River.

Huge vacuum hoses emerge from the tarpaulins to suck the material into mobile containers, and each worker has their own air tanks to breathe.

Werner said they will repaint the bridge with a polyurethane paint after removing the old layers. It is unclear what color it will be – when asked, a Department of Transportation spokesperson directed Enterprise to file a Freedom of Information request.

This bridge was originally the site of the old footbridge, which according to historical records was originally built by Walter C. Rice in the early 1900s to shorten his walks from his neighboring mansion to the village. This bridge was removed each spring when the logging trucks moved lumber down the river.

The Motor Bridge as we know it today was built in 1957 as an extension of State Route 3 into downtown. It is 186 feet long and named after Frank Ratigan, who was mayor at the time the bridge was built.

The area where the bridge meets Main Street used to be the site of several buildings that were removed during construction, including a house and a joke shop.

The work is expected to take at least a week.