UK News 17-11-2000 £5million To Fix Bridge Wobble who: Architects Ove Arup what: Says it will cost £5m to fix bridge wobble where: Millennium Bridge, LONDON when: Yesterday snippet: Removing the "wobble" from the £18million Millennium Bridge in London is going to cost £5million, engineering company Ove Arup announced yesterday after five months of research. But, ask the papers today, who will foot the bill? The so-called Blade of Light footbridge linking the City of London with the Tate Modern opened for just three days in June this year and, recalls The Guardian, when word got around about its bouncing, lurching movement, "thrill seekers flocked to experience it themselves and it was closed completely." Arup believes that the bridge needs to be fitted with "viscous dampers" and "tuned mass dampers", explains The Telegraph`s Caroline Davies. £5million would pay for six weeks of testing and a further six months of remedial work, although it would not cover the cost of ongoing maintenance. "The debate has already begun about who should pay the designers," writes The Independent`s Technology Editor Charles Arthur. Will it be the Millennium Commission, which funded around half of the original costs, "the Corporation of London (on the north side of the river) or Southwark Council (on the south)? Yesterday, none was willing to volunteer". [... more]

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