Wobbly Bridge is ready to roll

The Wobbly Bridge could soon lose its nickname. It finally re-opens to the public on Friday when, if the engineers have done their job properly, it will once again become known as the Millennium Bridge.

So confident are the engineers that they today stated categorically: "It will not vibrate."

It is 20 months since the elegant structure opened with great fanfare - and then closed amid acute embarrassment three days later.

The engineering firm Arup, one of the three members of the design team, has spent £5million and 10 months working to calm the bridge's alarming movement. It is finally satisfied, after extensive testing, that those efforts have proved a success.

From 10am this Friday, Londoners and tourists will be able to decide for themselves whether the 320m pedestrian link, between St Paul's Cathedral and the Globe Theatre on the South Bank, is indeed free of the stomachturning wobbles that earned the bridge its nickname and brought a touch of farce to proceedings.

Watching them with a keen eye will be Roger Ridsdill Smith, project director at Arup, which designed the bridge with Lord Foster and the sculptor Sir Anthony Caro.

"I will be very glad to see people using the bridge," said Mr Ridsdill Smith, who said he was confident that the problem had been cured.

On its opening day the bridge, which cost £18.2million to build, recorded 50-70mm of what engineers call "dynamic sway". Arup says it has cut that to about 5mm.

"We subjected it to the most extreme dynamic tests," said Mr Ridsdill Smith, referring to the day three weeks ago when 2,200 volunteers- - lawyers, bankers, teachers and office workers - trooped up and down the bridge, trying their hardest to make it move.

"We measured the movement of the bridge and it was well within the limits we had set ourselves," he said.

"It has been a difficult time," he added. "We have been researching a phenomenon which was previously unquantified. It has been a long process-but it was worth it. In fact, we are now consulting on other bridges with our expertise."

When it opened in June 2000, pedestrians were forced to cling on to the handrails as the bridge lurched in winds. Some described it as like being on a ship in a high sea. However, nearly 100 dampers have now been installed in the operation to calm the movement.