AT long last Poole’s £21 million Twin Sails Bridge is finally beginning to resemble a bridge.

After many months of work creating the 41 separate pieces of steel that make up the bridge deck and lifting leaves, transporting the sections from Darlington and assembling them on site, the Back Water Channel is being spanned.

With the complex operation to float the first of the giant 100ft triangular lifting leaves into place on the Hamworthy side, another milestone in its construction has been marked.

Time lapse by Hallmark Productions

“Moving more than 500 tonnes of steel safely from dry land to the Back Water Channel is a huge technical challenge,” said strategic director Jim Bright.

“The sheer scale and complexity of this engineering operation is remarkable and unlike anything we’ve witnessed before in Poole.”

Two massive 20-wheeled transporters slowly swung the giant metal leaf round and inched it on to a barge.

This was floated into position and as the tide fell the leaf was manoeuvred into its permanent position using jacks, the barge’s buoyancy and the tide.

“It’s gone without a hitch,” said Richard Bruten, site project manager for Hochtief (UK) Construction Ltd, as the barge took the weight of the metal structure and its transporters.

“About 180 years ago Brunel did the same thing using the tide when he built the Royal Albert Bridge near Plymouth,” said Phil Bailey, construction director of Hochtief, who came from Swindon to see the operation.

“We haven’t found a new technique.”

With the now duck-egg blue painted spans beginning to stride across the water, the project is on time to open in early 2012.

A truncated section of the second opening leaf is due to be put into place on July 20, leaving a navigation channel open.

The team has been on site for 15 months and has more months of work ahead joining everything together and ensuring it all works.

Council leader Cllr Elaine Atkinson said: “This is the next stage in Poole’s regeneration. This is a phenomenal day for the town.”