Millennium Bridge daytime closure this week

Engineers from the City of London will be carrying out their routine biennial inspection of the footbridge linking Bankside to St Paul's Cathedral between Monday 12 and Friday 16 March.

The bridge needs to be closed during the inspection because the deck of the bridge will be lifted to allow inspection of all parts of the structure.

Specialist rope access teams and inspection engineers will climb out on the towers, cables and bridge piers to inspect the bridge. A survey team will also check the profile of the support cables.

At the same time as the structural inspection, an electrical inspection will be carried out, the bridge will be cleaned and some surveying and maintenance work will be done.

The Millennium Bridge opened for just one day in June 2000 before it was closed due its tendency to wobble when large numbers of people crossed the bridge. It didn't open fully until February 2002.

In January the bridge was sealed off by police as a precaution when strong winds hit London.