London’s most famous pedestrian bridge has reopened to the public after a three week closure for essential maintenance work.
Millennium Bridge opened on Sunday evening at 6pm, following a project to replace the synthetic membrane between the aluminium bridge deck and steel structure underneath.
Contractors also used the closure as an opportunity to give the 23-year-old structure a deep clean.
The bridge is owned and maintained by 900-year-old charity City Bridge Foundation, at no cost to the taxpayer.
City Bridge Foundation Chairman Giles Shilson said: “It’s great to see the bridge looking once again like the shining silver arc over the Thames it was when it opened, after getting a much-needed deep clean.
“More importantly, the work that is not visible to the public, replacing the old membrane which had started to degrade, will stop some of the issues we’ve seen with the bridge deck in recent months.
“I’d like to thank our contractor for delivering this project on-time and on-budget and working around the clock to ensure we could get the work completed as quickly as possible; and residents, workers and visitors for bearing with us over the last three weeks.”
The maintenance work was delivered by civil engineering contractor FM Conway while the deep cleaning was carried out by cleaning contractor Veolia.
Millennium Bridge has enjoyed a colourful history, initially known as the ‘wobbly bridge’ due to issues when it first opened in 2001. It subsequently passed into the ownership of City Bridge Foundation.
The charity also owns Tower, London, Southwark and Blackfriars bridges, and is London’s biggest independent charity funder, awarding grants of over £30 million a year to charities across the capital.
