The Minister of Public Works said yesterday he expected to get a recommendation for the replacements for two bridges inside the next few weeks.

Lieutenant-Colonel David Burch said the deadline for submissions on replacements for the Swing Bridge and Longbird Bridge in St George’s was today.

He added he could not discuss the level of interest in doing the work generated by the request for information, but that he expected to be briefed soon.

He said yesterday: “The engineers who are responsible for bridges, our structural engineers, will do an assessment of the responses that we have had and make a recommendation to me about the next step and the way forward.

“I expect that will take a couple of weeks. It will be a couple of weeks after that before any recommendation comes forward to me.”

The request for information to replace the Longbird and Swing Bridges was issued on June 7, but the deadline for submissions was extended from August 30 to November 1.

It was earlier predicted that the existing bridges would reach the end of their useful lives in 2021.

Information in documents released in August indicated that designs for the bridges were 90 per cent complete.

It was announced in December 2017 that three British companies, Ramboll, the lead consultant, as well as Knight Architects and Eadon Consultants, would work together on the replacements.

The RFI explained that the Ministry of Public Works wanted organisations to supplement the design team “in regard to financing, fabricating and building” the bridges.

A request was made for further information and drawings to help companies put together “initial budget information”.