Topeka ? Unlike the utilitarian approach used for a 1960s-era bridge, the replacement for the city’s Topeka Boulevard Bridge has been designed with a more artistic flair evocative of the Art Deco style of its predecessor.

Construction is expected to start next summer on the bridge, at 3,400 feet about 300-feet shorter than the original, which at the time of its construction in 1938 was the longest bridge in the nation.

The bridge was one of many products of the federal Works Progress Administration, one of President Franklin Roosevelt’s programs for helping bring the nation out of the Great Depression by providing work for the jobless.

The cost of that project was $1.5 million, high for its time.

“They weren’t looking to spare expense,” said Craig Mattox, a partner at Finney & Turnipseed, the Topeka engineering firm that designed the new bridge – a $42 million undertaking. A predecessor of the same firm designed the original bridge.

The current bridge will be removed and rebuilt, forcing a 22-month detour to the Kansas Avenue Bridge, built in the mid-1960s.

In planning the design for the new bridge, Mattox said he drew on comments that the Topeka Public Works Department gathered in 2003 through public forums and a telephone survey.

“They wanted something that was different and not vanilla,” Mattox said. “But they didn’t want the cost to get out of line.”

Renderings of the design will be posted on the city Web site (http://www.topeka.org) this week, and the final drawings are to be submitted to the Kansas Department of Transportation by Thursday. The bridge features a black steel handrail and street lights, with “gateway piers” at both ends.