Millennium Bridge revamp will have to wait after lukewarm response to tender invitation

By Ben Lynch, Local Democracy Reporter

A £3.5 million refurbishment of the Millennium Bridge expected to begin by this spring has been pushed back to next year.

The City Bridge Foundation, which owns the central London crossing, said the delay is due to a ‘lower than expected number of responses’ to its tender for a contractor to carry out the works.

The Foundation has chosen to retender for the project, which will see the bridge’s deck resurfaced, a re-tensioning of the suspension cables and its steelwork repainted.

The original tender, which closed in January, gave an estimated start date of February 10, with the contract to last six months. A spokesman for the City Bridge Foundation however clarified work was expected to begin by the spring.

The tender detailed how the works were to consist of three key elements: resurfacing the aluminium desk to improve slip resistance; repainting the steelwork; and re-tensioning the suspension cables, which the tender stated ‘has not been completed before.

The City Bridge Foundation wrote disruption of the crossing should be minimised, though that it would be for contractors to pitch how this would be achieved.

A contract value was estimated as between £2.75m and £3.5m. The City Bridge Foundation now says that the works are not expected to begin now until 2026.

A spokesman said: “Due to a lower than expected number of responses, we have taken the decision to retender for the work, splitting the bridge re-decking and painting and the re-tensioning of the cables that support the bridge into two separate briefs. This means we won’t now be in a position to begin the refurbishment work until next year.”

The Millennium Bridge was opened in June 2000, linking St Paul’s Cathedral with the Tate Modern Gallery on the south side of the Thames. It was quickly closed due to excessive swaying, earning it the nickname the ‘wobbly bridge’. Following works to stabilise the crossing it was reopened in February 2002.

The City Bridge Foundation is a 900-year-old charity which looks after five Thames crossings: Tower, London, Southwark, Millennium and Blackfriars. Its sole trustee is the City of London Corporation, and elected members sit on the foundation’s board.

Pictured top: The City as seen from the Millennium Bridge (Picture: LDRS/Talia Shadwell)