In 1914, President William H. Taft visited Augusta to dedicate Butt Memorial Bridge to his aide, Maj. Archibald Butt, who had perished aboard the Titanic in 1912.

This fall, workers are acquiring land for a complex road project designed to spare the ornate downtown landmark and relieve traffic snarls along 15th Street.

"This is a big project, it's a bear," Augusta Planning Director George Patty said. "It goes over the Augusta Canal, under the Calhoun Expressway and all the way up past Greene Street."

The project, which will extend St. Sebastian Way over a new bridge spanning the canal, is a happy ending to an ugly controversy that goes back 23 years - when the Georgia Department of Transportation designed a new bridge that required demolishing Butt's memorial.

Preservationists wanted the bridge saved, but the city had been promised $15 million in federal funds toward a new bridge, leaving politicians eager to find a way to spend those dollars in Augusta.

"The state eventually came up with a plan to just go around Butt Bridge and put in a new bridge to the east," Mr. Patty said. "The problem was that it left Butt Bridge unattached and isolated. The Butt folks complained, and the plan died."

Despite its intricate ironwork, glass globes, gilded lions and painted masonry eagles, the humpback bridge remains incapable of adequately handling traffic that bottlenecks near the canal each day.

The eventual compromise, which required - literally - an act of Congress, authorized Augusta to use its $15 million allocation for a series of road improvements that would improve traffic flow by other means and leave Butt Bridge intact.

The intricate plan focuses on St. Sebastian Way, a short road off Walton Way that now dead-ends at the canal. A new bridge will extend it over the canal and under Calhoun Expressway, running between Enterprise and Sutherland mills, along Cottage Street, then up to Greene Street, before turning toward the Savannah River and intersecting with Broad and Reynolds streets.

Another part of the plan extends Greene Street past 15th Street, where it now ends. The extension will cross Broad Street before it swings behind the existing mills and commercial buildings to connect with River Watch Parkway.

That alternative will cost about $15.8 million in federal money plus $4.2 million in funds contributed by Augusta, Mr. Patty said.

Right-of-way acquisition now under way will require purchasing at least 54 separate parcels.

"They're buying right of way now and expect to let the first contracts in March 2006," he said. "Then the real work will begin."

Besides preserving Butt Bridge and relieving traffic, the project's route also will benefit the Augusta Canal National Heritage Area by making it easier to drive to Enterprise Mill and the canal visitors center, said Dayton Sherrouse, the canal authority's executive director.

"When this is done, you'll be able to get off River Watch Parkway onto Greene Street and end up right in front of the Enterprise," he said.

The new bridge over the canal behind the Enterprise also will complement the canal area, he said.

"The first design had a very institutional bridge," Mr. Sherrouse said. "We needed it higher, so we could get our (tour) boats underneath, and we wanted some arches to mimic, to some degree, the design of Butt Bridge. They've done all that, so we think it will be more aesthetically pleasing."

Ross Snellings, who founded the Butt Memorial Bridge Legal Defense Fund in 1993 to fight plans to demolish the span, said the current plan appears sound.

"By all accounts, this gives us assurance that the bridge is safe for the foreseeable future," he said. "It almost seems untouchable now; it's an icon of preservation in Augusta."

Reach Rob Pavey at 868-1222, ext. 119, or rob.pavey@augustachronicle.com.