Painting will come to an end in 2012. Steelwork requiring maintenance will be repaired before the new paint is applied in three protective layers, to preserve the steelwork for years to come.

Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering's new US$145 million contract follows on from refurbishment work that it has been carrying out for the past six years. "The team currently working on the bridge has now completed some of the most difficult work and they have already overcome the most significant challenges that this project posed. For that reason, we have taken the decision to accelerate the work and increase the annual investment with the aim of generating long-term financial savings," said Network Rail chief executive Iain Coucher.