Public to vote for new bridge

One of the designs is similar to the blinking eye bridge

Teesside is to get a hi-tech multi-million pound river crossing to rival the so-called "blinking eye" bridge over the Tyne.

Five designs have been short listed, including one by the designers of the award-winning Millennium Bridge which links Gateshead and Newcastle.

The public are being asked to vote for the design they want to see built across the Tees at Stockton.

The pedestrian and cycle bridge project, is part of a £1.5bn urban regeneration scheme for the Tees valley.

The scheme also includes a revamp of former industrial land in Stockton, a 250-acre business park at Teesside Airport and a 200-acre residential and leisure development for Middlesbrough.

International designers

Joe Docherty, chief executive of Tees Valley Regeneration, said: "We are not trying to rival what has been done in Newcastle.

"We are redeveloping a site here near the University of Durham's Stockton campus and we think there will significant advantages if we can link the university with Stockton town centre.

"We advertised internationally for designers to submit ideas for the bridge.

"We hope to have a final design chosen by mid-October, with work starting in the summer of 2004.

"But we obviously have to ensure the engineering is right because we all know what happened when the Millennium Bridge in London started to wobble."