Construction is expected to resume on a controversial private bridge on the north shore of Flathead Lake this fall, as long as it is in compliance with an original county lakeshore construction permit.

Roger Sortino was permitted to build a 481-foot-long bridge straight from the north shore to Dockstader Island, all on property owned by the Sortino family. But Sortino deviated from that plan with a design that would have led to a bridge more than 600 feet long.

Because of that, the county Planning Office issued a stop-work order on the project in April. An amendment to the permit was necessary for work to continue, but that couldn’t happen after the Planning Office learned that a 2013 survey adjusted property lines in a manner where the bridge no longer would be crossing a single parcel of property.

A bridge crossing more than the parcel could be classified as a road, which is not permitted in the Lakeshore Protection Zone.

Planning Director BJ Grieve said Sortino recently had the property re-surveyed and the property lines adjusted to where they were before he got the construction permit, and notified the Planning Office of his latest plans in July.

“He’s going to do it the way it was originally designed,” Grieve said, adding that the bridge can be 481 feet long in a straight approach to the island, but it will involve fewer pilings than originally designed, with longer spans between the pilings.

Grieve said Sortino told him that one reason he tried to have a longer bridge was to have a bend in the bridge’s approach to the island in order to avoid sinking pilings into bedrock that was encountered.

“He ran into bedrock and that’s his problem, not ours. If he can’t deal with that he can’t build the bridge,” Grieve said.

Blasting will not be an option for sinking the pilings. “Blasting is not an allowable construction method in the Lakeshore Protection Zone,” Grieve said.

If completed, the bridge will be 481 feet long, 16 feet wide, decked with concrete and used for vehicles to access the island.

It has drawn considerable criticism for being an eyesore that is out of character with the north shore. A petition signed by 400 people opposed to it was submitted to the Flathead County Commission by Holt Drive resident Dave Hadden, who asserts the bridge actually is a road that never should have been permitted.

“The bridge will, in fact, be a road,” Hadden stated recently. “A private road. The county lakeshore protection regulations specify that neither a road nor a driveway may cross the Lakeshore Protection Zone. It is clear from the materials, size and intended purpose of the bridge that it is in fact a ‘road.’”

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.