Dunedin City Council staff planned to send a letter to the port company in the next few days, and talks were likely to follow, council roading projects engineer Evan Matheson confirmed yesterday.
"All costs are in and we would like to sit down with Port Otago to talk about cost recovery," he said.
The mid-section of the pedestrian bridge, which crosses the railway line from Thomas Burns St to Castle St, was wrecked on February 12.
A collapsible container on the back of one of the train's wagons was blamed for the damage, after metal flaps flew up and crashed into the bridge span as the train went under it, on its way to the Port Chalmers.
The incident meant pedestrians parking in the waterfront area were forced to take an inconvenient detour into the city until the bridge was eventually restored in October.
Yesterday, Mr Matheson said the cost of replacing the original bridge with a new, improved version stood at $300,000.
The council was to cover the $25,000 bill for design improvements, leaving Port Otago with a $275,000 bill.
However, he stressed Port Otago had not yet had a chance to respond to the request, and any resolution was not expected until "the early months of 2009".
Port Otago chief executive Geoff Plunket and chairman John Gilks could not be reached for comment yesterday, and commercial general manager Peter Brown declined to comment ahead of receiving the letter.
Despite the move to seek costs, Mr Matheson was reluctant to discuss "ultimate liability" with the Otago Daily Times yesterday.
The newspaper was told in February the container had been loaded at South Freight, a division of Port Otago, and deployment of the container's flaps had been identified as the reason for contact with the bridge.
However, Mr Matheson said yesterday it was not known whether mechanical fault or human error was to blame for the flaps flying up.
The council had no plans to talk to KiwiRail about cost recovery at this stage, he said.
The original bridge was covered under the council's two existing insurance policies, but the "very, very high" excess on payouts for council assets - including bridges - meant a claim was not considered cost-effective, he said.
"We are best just to talk directly with Port Otago," he said.
The issue of cost recovery had been delayed because council staff had to wait until installation of the new bridge was completed and final costs known, he said.
