THE LONG awaited Swale Crossing to relieve the Isle of Sheppey's KIngsferry bridge bottleneck should be open to traffic by summer 2006.

Transport Minster David Jamieson made the announcement on Thursday morning during a meeting with civic leaders and Sittingbourne and Sheppey MP Derek Wyatt in the Guildhall, Queenborough..

Mr Jamieson told Queenborough Town Mayor Mick Constable that the Highways Agency has started the procurement process for the multi-million pound scheme and that work could start in late summer 2003.

The agency has decided that the new Swale crossing will be funded and operated by a design, build, finance and operate contract, financed through the private sector as a public-private partnership.

The contract will consist of the new Swale crossing and associated roadworks, which will extend the dual carriageway from Iwade to Queenborough, and then operate and maintain the new works and the A249 between the M2 to Sheerness for a period of 30 years.

Mr Jamieson said: "Because the contractor will have to maintain it for 30 years there is then an incentive for the builder to build a bridge of quality."

Peter Minshull from the Highways Agency said that a journey time reliability and annual review would also take place following completion of the bridge. He said: "When bidding for the scheme they (the contractors) bid for a particular payment mechanism, within that if they fail to perform they're payments will be reduced. A financial penalty."

The consortium to take forward the project will be carefully selected by the agency using a criteria which will consider the experience of the companies making up the partnership, the cost to the agency which will make payments to the winning consortia when it opens to traffic and a range of other factors which will ensure the bid is accepted.

A notice announcing that the Highways Agency intends to go forward with the project will be placed in the Official Journal of the European Communities shortly. In March a further notice will be placed in the journal inviting suitable consortiums of companies to express their interest in bidding for the project.

Mr Jamieson told his Sheppey hosts: "The transport links have been vital to this part of Kent and the new Swale Crossing bridge will be vital for those links.

"It will hopefully bring new enterprises, jobs and help some of the business here already as well as those using the bridge on a daily basis. I'm delighted this project can go ahead."