Londonderry's new 'Peace Bridge' has been celebrated with a weekend of festivities marking the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday.

While it is six months behind the original schedule for completion, the £14m cycle and footbridge remains one of the biggest projects undertaken in the area in years.

It is hoped the bridge will be the focus for not only major regeneration of the area, but the symbolic union of what is sometimes a divided city.

The mammoth engineering project covers a distance of 312 metres and will carry pedestrians and cyclists to and from Derry's Cityside and Waterside.

During construction, the large concrete sections, which form the deck of the bridge, had to be shipped over from Wales, weighing 1,000 tonnes.

They were lifted into position by one of the UK's largest sea-going cranes, the Mersey Mammoth from Liverpool.

The 1057-tonne Forth Atlas barge then ferried massive pieces of the bridge deck from Lisahally docks to the site of the new foot and cycle bridge will link Derry's city centre with the massive parade ground plaza at Ebrington.

The former Army barracks in the Waterside is earmarked for major redevelopment ahead of Derry's year of being UK City of Culture in 2013.

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The Peace Bridge was scheduled to be complete by December 2010, but has faced delays with the finish date revised to be May after severe bad weather caused difficulties for construction staff working on the bridge over the Christmas period.

Programme Manager Sean Currie told BBC NI there had been a delay of approximately four weeks.

"The snow and ice caused problems accessing the bridge."

"Snow had to be cleared from the deck before they could begin work and in the bad weather it was too dangerous to allow anyone to go up in the basket to the masts."

Celebrations

At the weekend , a total of 600 children from various schools across the city provided a colourful spectacle as they marked the official opening backed by a fireworks display on Saturday evening with torches also being lit in a "vigil of light".

The Chairman of Londonderry's regeneration company, Ilex, said the peace bridge would become the city's iconic image.

Sir Roy McNulty said: "It is not as big as the bridge across Sydney Harbour, but for Derry I think it will provide a memorable image and I think people will see it on postcards and images of the city."

The contract for the design and construction of the Peace Bridge was awarded to Graham and a high quality design and construction team comprising of Wilkinson Eyre, London (architects), Faber Maunsell, Newcastle (structural engineers) and Rowecord, Wales (steelwork fabrication).

Based in Dromore, Co Down, Graham has built some of the most iconic bridges in Ireland, including Foyle Bridge, Belfast Cross Harbour Road and Rail Bridges and the Dargan Bridge in South Dublin.

The bridge architects, Wilkinson Eyre, are best known for the design of the iconic Gateshead Millennium Bridge.

Speaking in January last year, when the contract was awarded, Alan Bill, Managing Director of Graham said: "Graham are delighted to return to the North West to construct another bridge over the River Foyle and add another landmark structure to their portfolio of fine bridges, civil engineering and building projects. We look forward to working closely with Ilex in delivering a successful project."

(BMcC)