PART of a new bridge today spans the Clyde heralding the start of a multi-million pound plan to breathe new life into a key area.

An 800-tonne crane was brought to the banks of the river to put the steel structure in place to link Dalmarnock in Glasgow with Shawfield in South Lanarkshire.

The bridge project will lead to a new lease of life for Shawfield, where there is to be a business district able to spawn up to 15,000 new jobs in the years ahead.

The bridge will be used by pedestrians and cyclists when it opens next year. Workers will be able to walk from the new business hub to the recently upgraded Dalmarnock Railway Station in just 10 minutes.

Regeneration chiefs at Clyde Gateway have spent almost £5million on the bridge, with almost half the cash coming from Europe.

They are spending another £10m on a national business district which will provide more than a million square feet of industrial space at what used to be Shawfield Industrial Estate.

Remedial work on the site, along the river's South Side, has begun but the district won't be completed for at least another 15 years.

Clyde Gateway chief executive Ian Manson said: "The re-development to deliver the National Busi-ness District at Shawfield is fundamental to Clyde Gateway's long-term aims and targets for jobs and private sector investment."

gordon.thomson@ eveningtimes.co.uk