Hull's A63 footbridge delayed until after City of Culture
Work is now expected to start in 2018.
Work on a new footbridge over Hull's busiest road - the A63 - now won't be getting underway until AFTER the City of Culture celebrations.
It was due to be completed in April next year - but now Highways England say they've run into problems.
West Hull MP Alan Johnson says rather than have the works ongoing through the City of Culture year, they've made the decision to delay the project until 2018.
Alan Johnson told Viking:
"Highways England informed me a couple of weeks ago that the likely completion date for the iconic bridge connecting the City properly with it's waterfront was now November rather than April 2017.
"Having accepted that the assessment is accurate we are left with two stark alternatives; we either go ahead in the knowledge that for almost the whole of our year as City of Culture we will have no bridge and severe disruption while it's being constructed or we press for guarantees about its construction in 2018 and alternative alleviation measure for the thousands of people who'll be crossing Castle Street to see the wonderful events that will be taking place in the Fruit Market and on the Marina.
"It's disappointing that despite the best efforts of everyone concerned including the Transport Secretary who agreed to separate the bridge from the road scheme and try to complete it in early in 2017,we've been unable to meet our objective. But this way we can have a successful 2017 unhindered by major disruption around the Marina and have the iconic bridge in place the following year. The A63 upgrade will hopefully go ahead at the same time."