In theory, save&exit and then reopening the game should have them back in the spawn point, which isn't at the bridge. It's something I did in the code in one of the last updates. Doesn't it work?
I was fairly certain that save & exit hadn't worked for me in the past, but not entirely sure. So for the past week I've been roaming around hoping to run into a bridge-blocker, and just now I did. I've got the three Varannari wolf-pelt buyers near the bridge on the Imperial Coast. One of them is blocking the bridge and hasn't moved for 20 minutes (real time). I have saved and exited the game several times without effect. I also ran off the map to the Nilomar Cape, saved, exited, and reloaded there; and when I got back to the bridge that doofus was still standing in the same spot.
So to answer your question definitively---no, it doesn't work.
Now if you'll take a break from Archaelund and write some code for EK allowing me to crush this guy's skull it will be much appreciated.