A major milestone has been reached on the £600 million Mersey Gateway Project.

Construction teams have installed the first stay cable to connect the projects south pylon to the main bridge deck in the Mersey estuary.

The 52-metre long cable is one of 145 stay cables which will support the 1,000-metre long reinforced concrete bridge.

Form traveller machines are casting the deck segments from each side of the three pylons and once the concrete has reached the required strength the stay cables will be installed along the bridge.

Gareth Stuart, Project Director of the Merseylink construction joint venture, said: "This marks a momentous occasion for the project. The stay cables will be an iconic feature of this landmark structure making it one of the most recognisable bridges in the UK. We're now entering a new, very visual phase of the bridge construction, where people will be able to see the stay cables connected to the bridge deck as it emerges across the river week by week."

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Merseylink's Design Manager, George Moir, added: "The first two strands are threaded through the stay pipe then the tower crane lifts the pipe up to the anchor point in the upper pylon where the top ends of the strands are fixed into place.

"The bottom ends of the strands are then attached to the anchor point in the bridge deck and stressed using a hydraulic system. This enables us to get the correct level of tension needed to support that segment of bridge deck.

"We then use a winch system through the stay pipe to winch the remaining strands up one by one. Once all of the strands have been installed they sit in parallel inside the stay pipe to form the stay cable."

The major infrastructure project is due to be completed in autumn 2017.

(LM)