ENGINEERS will today begin the delicate task of lifting a 67-tonne bridge into place over a busy road.

The new bridge will carry people who are following the Coast-to-Coast route, used by thousands of cyclists and walkers every year, across the A6076 road at Shield Row, in Stanley, County Durham.

The 60-metre-long arch has been built to replace an old railway bridge, which had to be demolished six months ago.

Officials said the A6076 road would be closed from 6am in the vicinity of the new bridge.

The single span "bow string" arch is being installed as part of improvements to road junctions in the area associated with a nearby housing development, being built by Bowey Homes and Dunelm Castle Homes.

Durham County Council asked for the improvements, but the £1m bridge, which will form a gateway feature to the proposed housing, is being funded by the developers.

The new road junction will incorporate traffic signals.

The bridge was too big to transport to the site in one piece, and, instead, was moved from designer and steel fabricator Mandall Engineering's factory, in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, in several pieces, before being welded into its final form.

It will be lifted into place this morning by a 1,000-tonne crane, which will carefully inch the structure into its final position where long anchor bolts will secure it to concrete supports.

The bridge works, which have been supervised throughout by Durham County Council, are being carried out by Lumsden and Carroll Construction Limited, which is part of the Esh Group of companies.

Once in use, the bridge and road junction will become the responsibility of the county council, which also designed the bridge supports and the road layout.

As well as carrying the Sustrans C2C cycle route, which runs between Workington and Whitehaven in the west and Sunderland in the east, the bridge will also be used by pedestrians using the path along a railway that carried trains into Consett.

The work will be completed by the middle of next month.