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The eagerly anticipated opening of the new Meath Gardens Bridge will take place on Tuesday 20th October.  The new cycle and pedestrian bridge which crosses the Regents Canal will benefit residents and local communities by connecting Bethnal Green to Bow, and beyond.  Walkers and cyclists will be able to make local journeys in a traffic-free environment between residential areas and their local parks, schools and hospitals avoiding the busy Mile End Road and Roman Road.

The bridge desk itself weighs more than 65 tonnes and in August the four giant component pieces of the new bridge were lifted into place over Regents Canal using a huge 500 tonne crane.  Tower Hamlets Council’s project manager Ashraf Ali said “Having been working on this from the outset, from securing planning approval and funding through to managing the contractors, it’s fantastic to see it come together.”

Tower Hamlets Council’s Lead Member for Cleaner, Safer, Greener - Abdal Ullah added “This bridge has taken a lot of planning and a lot of work from the council and its partners and I am delighted to see it come into fruition.  The number of bike users and pedestrians who already make use of this area is huge so there will be many, many people who benefit from the new bridge.”

This scheme has been made possible through the enormous popular support for Sustrans’ Connect2 – as voted for by the public in the UK’s largest lottery competition in December 2007.  The cost of the scheme is £2 million, with £300,000 coming from the Big Lottery Fund as part of Sustrans Connect2.

The official bridge opening will take place at 11.30a.m. and there will be cycling displays and demonstrations on the day as part of opening celebrations.

Published on 16th Oct 2009