Venice's first major bridge in centuries will be open by the end of the year despite the latest in a series of delays, its acclaimed designer said Tuesday.
Speaking at the inauguration of a Rome show on his work, Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava said work on new supporting structures on the Canal Grande banks was proceeding apace.
The bridge itself was waiting to be moved across to Venice from the port of Marghera, he said.
"The inauguration date has not yet been set but I'm convinced it will take place before the end of the year".
"It's an extraordinary and wonderful adventure," he added.
The controversial bridge was recently hit by reported fears that the canal banks might not be able to bear its weight.
Calatrava reacted angrily to the reports, saying the "unfounded criticism" of the bridge's design and engineering had been "extremely disappointing and professionally embarrassing".
Calatrava, designer of the 2004 Athens Olympic stadium, said he had felt impelled to reply to reports that appeared in the Italian press.
The weight of the bridge, he said, "will be borne by foundations set into solid terrain, far below the banks, in a resilient layer of stone and earth compacted and hardened by hydraulic cylinders".
The architect, whose other trademark buildings include an auditorium and sealife centre in his native Valencia and the Milwaukee Museum of Fine Arts, also stressed the bridge's delays and spiralling costs had nothing to do with him.
The bridge - the fourth on one of the world's most famous stretches of water - was to have been built years ago.
But delays of various sorts have held up its placement and expanded its original seven-billion-lire price tag threefold to an estimated ten million euros.
Now it has been decided to erect the bridge in a hangar in nearby Marghera so that final load-bearing tests on its foundation structures can be made, Venice officials say.
"Necessary counter-measures" are already being taken in view of the "noted fragility of the canal banks," they say.
CELEBRATED IN ROME SHOW.
The Rome show on Calatrava - 'Santiago Calatrava - From Shapes To Architecture' - was inaugurated by Mayor Walter Veltroni Tuesday and will run from Wednesday to September 2 at the Scuderie del Quirinale opposite the Italian president's Quirinal Palace.
Veltroni described Calatrava as a "great contemporary architect" and his works as "majestic and light".
Calatrava, 55, has received a cupboardful of awards and been the subject of numerous shows around the world.
Among his upcoming projects, he will design the new urban transit hub at the World Trade Center site in New York and has won provisional bidding for what will be the world's highest building, a projected 2,000ft (600m) spire in Chicago.
