Project manager Simon Underwood said more details about the proposed $20million bridge, for which detailed design work started nine months ago, would be available to Beaumont residents at a public session next Tuesday.
Feedback from residents would be used to ''further shape and refine'' the bridge's design, and depending on the timing and outcome of the work, construction of the 190m bridge and 1.3km of new highway works might start in 2020.
The project, entirely funded by the NZ Transport Agency, will take up to two years to complete.
Mr Underwood said geotechnical testing ''to build a better understanding of ground conditions at the new bridge site'' and additional land surveys would now be done.
He said the existing 135-year-old single lane bridge on State Highway8 at Beaumont was now ''nearing the end of its economic life'', although it would remain to provide pedestrian and cycle access across the Clutha River to the Clutha Gold Cycle Trail.
The alignment of the new bridge, which would be built just downstream of the existing bridge, had taken into account feedback from Beaumont residents, who wanted the new bridge to still pass the front of the Beaumont Hotel, Mr Underwood said.
The existing 1880s bridge was one of the few wrought iron bridges still operating on New Zealand's highway network, an NZTA statement said.
