Bridge over canal will be opened this week

Swindon mayor David Cox will cut the ribbon on the bridge, which is just west of Purton Road's junction with the section of Thamesdown Drive, the new northern orbital road.

Beneath the bridge is a 30-metre tunnel that will take the waterway, once it is restored, from the north to the south side of Purton Road.

The £500,000 bridge will leave the way open for future restoration of the canal and enable the restored Mouldon Lock, the last of eight locks dropping the North Wilts Canal out of Swindon, to be re-used.

There will be a footpath and cycle track alongside the canal.

The canal crossing was built by Edmund Nuttall, of Swindon, the contractor building the new northern orbital road.

Project-managed by the council, the tunnel has been paid for by contributions from the council, North Swindon Development Company and Wilts and by the Berks Canal Trust.

The official opening will be held on Friday, and will mark an important milestone in the canal restoration scheme. To mark the event, members of the Wilts and Berks Canal Trust have created a computer generated image of how the waterway will work when it is open.

Henry Smith, chairman of the Trust, said: "The navigable culvert will eventually carry the North Wilts Canal in to Swindon. The town will be at the centre of the Wessex Waterway network."

He said efforts to bring the canal further in to Swindon will again require the co-operation of Swindon Council.

The distributor road, which stops just up from the bridge, is planned to continue in to Swindon and join the busy Iffley Road roundabout system. Construction of this extension, planned for the near future, will require the diversion of a bend in the River Ray, immediately upstream of the bridge, to allow room for both the road and the canal to pass through.

It is hoped that in this area the canal will be constructed at the same time as the road to minimise engineering works and save on costs.