The three sealed envelopes arrived at the Municipal Works Office on Havelock Road at intervals throughout Sunday morning. The first, from Hallam & Stroud, was delivered by hand at 8:15 AM. The second, from Brannock Cable Works of Edgeminster, arrived by registered post at 9:40. The third, from Vandersteel Ironworks of the Ashford Republic, was carried in by a courier who had travelled overnight from Ashford and asked for a glass of water.

By noon, Chief Municipal Engineer Dorothea Kinnear had all three proposals on her desk. The Fernwick Bridge — 112 years old, closed since 21 February, its four suspension cables fractured beyond interim repair — now has a path back to service.

The bids, details of which were disclosed to this newspaper by sources within the Works Office, vary considerably in scope, cost, and timeline.

Hallam & Stroud — the Bobington firm that reinforced the bridge’s cables in 1991 and overhauled the Coldharbour Viaduct in 2019 — has submitted the lowest estimate at 54.2 million florins, with a completion period of 10 months. Their proposal calls for full replacement of all four primary suspension cables using domestically sourced high-tensile steel, along with reinforcement of the eastern tower anchorage, which their assessment identifies as showing early-stage corrosion. Neville Barker, the firm’s site engineer and a specialist in cable-stayed structures with twenty years’ experience, would oversee the work.

“We know this bridge,” said Malcolm Stroud, senior partner. “We’ve had our hands in its ironwork twice before. That is not a trivial advantage.”

Brannock Cable Works, the Edgeminster-based manufacturer, has proposed a more extensive intervention at 62.8 million florins and 12 months. Their bid includes full cable replacement using their own proprietary cable, a complete re-decking of the roadway surface, and installation of a modern drainage system beneath the deck — an addition that Kinnear’s original specification did not require but which Brannock argues will extend the bridge’s working life by decades. Their cables carry a 40-year manufacturer’s warranty, the longest of the three bids.

Vandersteel Ironworks of the Ashford Republic has submitted the most expensive proposal at 71.4 million florins, with the shortest completion estimate of 9 months. Vandersteel’s bid specifies imported Ashford steel and a larger workforce — up to 90 labourers at peak — which the firm argues will compress the construction schedule. Their proposal also includes seismic reinforcement of both towers, a precaution that the other two firms did not include.

The spread between bids — 17.2 million florins — will be the subject of considerable debate. Councilman Aldric Voss has already signalled concern about the foreign bid’s cost. “Seventy-one million florins for a bridge repair, using imported steel, while our own firms offer capable alternatives at substantially lower cost,” he said. “The arithmetic speaks for itself.”

Others are less certain. The Vandersteel bid’s compressed timeline would return the bridge to service three months earlier than Brannock’s proposal — a calculation that has its own value. The emergency ferry service, now in its fifth week, is carrying an average of 8,100 passengers daily, with monthly passes numbering 1,620 as of Friday. The service is costing the city approximately 8,400 florins per month from the emergency transport reserve, and the night crossings added on 7 April have already proven popular. But a ferry is not a bridge.

“Fourteen thousand people crossed the Fernwick every day,” said Maeve Callister, a schoolteacher from Thornhill who has taken the 6:30 AM ferry every morning since it launched. “The ferry is a kindness. The bridge was a certainty.”

Kinnear is expected to present her assessment and recommendation to the full council before the end of April. A decision on the contract would follow shortly thereafter, with construction beginning in May or June.

The foundation assessment of the Bramblegate Steps wharf — the ferry’s southern terminus, and the site of the Lower Conduit’s stone-arched outfall — remains pending. A structural report is expected this month.