New £6.2m look for port skyline

An artist's impression of how the Celtic Gateway bridge will look, when it opens next summer. Enlarge Image

Details of a new £6.2m bridge to transform the skyline in Holyhead have been unveiled.

The artist's impression of the Celtic Gateway, which is due to open to the public next summer, shows how the Italian-built structure will look.

Several of the 15-tonne stainless steel arches have already been shipped in.

The bridge will provide a link between the ferry port, railway station and Market Street in the town centre.

Anglesey Council is hoping the bridge will provide a "significant role" in Holyhead's economic generation and bring more of the 2.4m ferry passengers each year who use the port into the town centre.

Work is due to start on 27 October and over the next few weeks the enormous sections of the bridge will be lifted into place.

The steel arches, arriving from Italian company Cimolai - who supplied the arches for the roof of the Olympic stadium in Athens in 2004 - will be welded together to form the curved supporting structure to the deck.

'Investment confidence'

The bridge will extend from the back of Market Street towards the new inner harbour causeway.

Council highways and transportation portfolio holder Councillor Keith Evans said: "People will begin to see for themselves the results of years of hard preparatory work. We would, of course, ask the public to be patient as traffic diversions will be in place as the work progresses".

Holyhead Forward board chairman Steve Jones said he hoped the bridge would lead to "greater private investment confidence in the area".

The project's funding backers include the Welsh Assembly Government, the EU's Objective One programme and the Welsh Development Agency.