BARRINGTON, R.I. (AP) _ The state Department of Transportation is offering to give away the Barrington River Bridge and is willing to pay $1.5 million to help relocate it.

The concrete bridge, located on Country Road, is 338-feet-long and 43-feet-wide. That doesn’t make for any easy move, but federal law requires the state to offer the bridge to the public for free before it can demolish it.

The state is agreeing to help pay $1.5 million for relocation costs because DOT would pay that amount to demolish it.

”This is no easy task,’ Edward S. Szymanski, DOT’s associate chief engineer said. ”It’s very heavy and it will be hard to reassemble it.’

Constructed between 1912 and 1916, the bridge was determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

The DOT said the bridge is significant because it’s an early example of a reinforced concrete arch bridge and it was designed by a prominent engineer.

The DOT is required by law to either repair historic bridges or try to give them away before demolishing them. Officials determined the Barrington River Bridge was not feasible to repair in its current location.

It will be replaced by a bridge with similar features, The Providence Journal reported.

Szymanski told the newspaper DOT has not received any written proposals for the bridge.

In the past, at least two bridges have been relocated. But because those bridges were steel they were easier to dismantle and reassemble.

Other historic bridges offered to the public did get takers but the offers were later withdrawn. Federal law says historic bridges must be made available for public use even it they’re located on private property.