Local Images - North East UK
The Millennium Bridge under construction at the Amec yard...
6 photos taken in "panorama" mode on Sunday 8th October 2000 at 11:30am

...and dropped into place on Monday, 20th November 2000

(I chose this pic from all the ones I took as it seems to show the scale of the crane best)

Click the photo for thumbnails of all the other pics. Mail me if you want the original, un-retouched images (Soon!)

 

Latest details can be found at the Gateshead Council Website - Bridge page

A live webcast of the journey will be broadcast from 9am GMT

There are also two webcams on the Tyne Bridge Towers, updating at 5 second intervals, which also give an excellent viewpoint.

The new Millennium Bridge is a pedestrian-only bridge linking the re-vitalised Newcastle quayside with the soon-to-be revitalised Gateshead Quays.

The operation of the bridge, is I think, unique. There are two arches, the second, visible in this picture as a horizontal white line, which will lift in a similar way to that of a motorcycle helmet visor to allow passage of ships/boats below.

The bridge will be completed in-situ and then floated up-river on barges, where the support posts have already been sunk into the river bed.

In the close-up picture, there is an orange floating crane. When I saw this on Sunday (22nd Oct 2000), my first thought was "They must be joking. That'll never lift it"

Next day, the Asian Hercules II turns up. Ah, says I, that's more like it.

To show the relative sizes, scroll down a bit for the panorama shot showing both the bridge and the Asian Hercules II. You can click that picture for a larger view, but it is 85kb, so may take longer to load if you've got a slow connection.

More details on the crane and the bridge can be found at the Millenium Bridge Home page.

 

More North East related links

Full details of the Asian Hercules II and the other floating cranes operated by Asian Lift Pte Ltd (links kindly supplied by Wong Foo Lam of Singapore)

Click the above or the top photo for a larger view

 

Saturday, 18th of November at about 11:30am - Looks like they went for lunch!!. The winds picking up, so maybe it won't happen after all.

Ok, it's 4pm, it's cold, and it keeps trying to rain. Latest news is that the lift may not happen 'till 7pm or later. Maybe I'll try then.

 
Well, It's 8'o'clock on the 18th of November, 2000 and BBC radio Newcastle have just announced that the transport of the bridge is being delayed until at least Monday, so one last photo for the road. It looks like the cables are finally in position for the lift, but I don't know if they are going to lift it now. They might dis-connect it all and do it again later on tomorrow. After all, the crane is sitting there with engines running to hold it in place. With force 4 or 5 winds predicted for Sunday, I don't think they are going to leave the bridge hanging off the end of the crane with it's engines running for 36 hours.
Sunday, 20th November 2000. The first part of the lift has been successfull. At this point, it's hard to see any reall difference, as it's only been lifted a few feet off the support blocks. The most obvious difference is that the bridge deck, the horizontal arch, is now raised a little, allowing a view of the underside. The ends it's been resting on now need to be cleaned and prepared for the positioning job, which will be on Monday.
Well, sometime between 6pm and 9pm they finally decided to do the full lift. The crane is now directy facing up river, with the bridge suspended out in front at 90 degrees to it's final resting position. It looks like the upriver trip is definitely going ahead as planned on Monday, 20th November 2000
Well, it started early, 7:30am, so I just caught it going past our house. By the time I got dressed and out the house, I just jumped in the car and headed for the Gateshead Riverside park, where the above photos were taken.