THE Squinty Bridge will reopen later this month - six months after its emergency closure.

THE Squinty Bridge will reopen later this month - six months after its emergency closure.

Glasgow roads bosses plan to open the crossing over the Clyde, officially known as the Clyde Arc, on June 29.

The bridge spanning the river between Finnieston and Pacific Quay was closed on safety grounds on January 14 when a forged steel component connecting a metal upright support to the bridge arch failed.

Since then, main contractor Edmund Nuttall has been working to establish the cause of the failure and to carry out repairs.

Investigators were looking at cheap steel imported from China as a possible cause.

Ruth Simpson, the city council's executive roads spokesman, said: "The Clyde Arc has proven to be extremely popular with the people of Glasgow.

"I am very pleased we are approaching a point where we will be able to give them back their bridge.

"It has a very important role to play in the regeneration of the Clyde and the communities on either bank.

"Clearly it has been disappointing to be without the bridge in recent months, but public safety is our priority and time and caution have been necessary."

Inspections carried out after the upright collapsed discovered a second connector on another hanger was also damaged.

As a result, the council and Nuttall decided to replace all 28 connectors with a different steel product which was loadtested off site before being installed.

Roads director Robert Booth said: "The bridge will open safely within the predicted timescale and, as we promised at the time of the closure, at no cost to the city council tax payers.

"We have taken every possible precaution to ensure the people of Glasgow can have confidence in their bridge and I would like to thank everyone for their patience and under-standing while this work was carried out."

The £20million Squinty Bridge, which opened in September last year, was the first new vehicle bridge to be built over the Clyde since the Kingston Bridge.

But its reopening is not the end of Glasgow's bridge troubles.

On June 14, the busy Bothwell Street off-ramp of the Kingston Bridge, which leads into the city centre, will close for five months.

It carries around 10,000 vehicles a day but is in need of major repair work, totalling around £4.5m.

There are also problems at the new pedestrian Tradeston Bridge - dubbed the Squiggly Bridge - which was due to open by this October but is now running around a year late.

Preparatory work on the southern bank quay walls, which make up a large part of the £33m cost of the project, ran six months behind schedule after they collapsed last September.

Further delays have resulted as a result of legal wranglings between contractors.