Pembrokeshire County Council has warned of disruption ahead on the roads around the locality this half-term week from tomorrow (Tuesday) - as the controversial new footbridge [once dubbed the ‘Instagram-friendly bridge] is delivered to Haverfordwest.

Concerns about the bridge – and potential costs – have previously been raised, with the design previously labelled an ‘Instagrammable’ bridge.

Councillors have previously heard the cost of the ‘signature’ bridge project amounts to £5.7m out of an overall Heart of Pembrokeshire budget of £25.4m. Of that money, external funding of £17.7m (70%) has been secured for the overall project and £5.1m (90%) secured for the bridge project.

This left council costs at £7.7m for the overall project, and some £600,000 for the bridge and associated works, with costs to date for the two projects amounting to £3.9m for the Heart of Pembrokeshire project, and £1.1m for the bridge only.

The Proposed Scheme where work got underway towards the end of last year, involved the removal of an existing pedestrian footbridge that spans across the Western Cleddau and the installation of a new pedestrian footbridge, to form a sculptural curved connection between Riverside and Western Quayside, that opens up a new ‘visual connection’ to Haverfordwest Castle to the west.

The new footbridge will be delivered to site at Riverside from the fabricator’s workshop in Cardiff starting, May 27 - detailed as follows:

• 27th May – 220ton crane with support vehicle with additional ballast and 1-2 articulated vehicle deliveries of temporary works

• 28th May – 1 large delivery of east section of bridge

• 29th May – 2 deliveries of middle sections of bridge

• 30th May – 2 deliveries of west sections of bridge and crane demobilisation.

To accommodate the deliveries, the delivery vehicle will drive into the bus station from the A40/Cartlett Road at the existing temporary bus station exit and then reverse into the service yard. Traffic marshals will be on site to control pedestrians during the delivery.

Bus services will operate as normal. Deliveries will be sequenced to avoid bus times; however, some disruptions will be unavoidable when the deliveries enter the site. The bridge will be assembled and final finishing applied for installation in mid-August.

“We apologise for any inconvenience caused by the traffic disruption during the delivery of the bridge to the site,” said a spokesperson for Pembrokeshire County Council.