Final piece in jigsaw as Liverpool's new terminal is made ready for visit of QE2

Sep 19 2007 by Larry Neild, Liverpool Daily Post

THE final piece in Liverpool’s £19m cruise liner terminal was finally moving into place last night.

The two-lane link bridge, that will be known as Samuel Cunard Way, will enable coaches and heavier traffic to drive directly on to the new liner terminal.

But last night it was still unclear whether the bridge will be operational by Friday when the QE2 arrives at the Liverpool waterfront.

Cunard wanted a fleet of coaches to ferry passengers from the shipside to the Anglican Cathedral, but a contingency plan has been devised to park the coaches near to the Isle of Man Seacat holding area in Princes Parade.

The steel bridge has been constructed on site and one of the country’s biggest cranes is being used to gently lower it into position.

Once in place there will be extra engineering work and then a series of safety checks before it can be opened to the public.

Strong winds left engineers frustrated at the weekend when it had ben hoped to position the bridge.

In what has been an intricate operation, using laser technology, the link bridge has been moved inch-by-inch in a lengthy operation. Meanwhile, Merseytravel expects its famous ferries to be packed on Friday for passengers wanting to get a close view of the QE2 on its 40th anniversary cruise.

Mersey Ferries services, from 1pm until 6.15pm, will be sailing as close and as safely as possible to the luxury liner, during her day long stop over in Liverpool.

Neil Scales, chief executive and director general of Merseytravel, said: “The Mersey Ferries are offering a fantastic opportunity to make the most of this rare visit by the QE2.

“This will be one of the last opportunities for people to see the QE2 in all her glory and we thought it was important that the Mersey Ferries played their part in such an historic visit.”

THE visit to Liverpool by the QE2 will culminate in a spectacular firework show at 10.45pm, expected to attract thousands of people to the river along both banks. However, the QE2 will not set sail from the Mersey until 3am on Saturday morning.