The Tradeston Bridge

cycling to work today I crossed the new bridge for the first time. It has a net zero effect in terms of distance for me, but it does avoid the bizarre cycle lane arrangement on the north side of King George V Bridge, which I've always meant to get around to blipping.

This pic gives some idea of the "squiggly" nature of the bridge. Once on it I did notice a couple of things. There's a vague sense of cheapness about it; the railings aren't quite regular, the flooring seems a bit cheap, the weld lines on the triangular pylons are very visible. Having said all that it's reasonable - preferable, in my view, to the bridge which won the original design competition. Neptune's Way looked to my eyes like a blunt copy of the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, without the moving aspect, and actually meant taking a long walk for a shortcut since it seemed to have an even wider curve than the Gateshead one. Plus, its costs were spiralling.