A footbridge that will carry the Railway Trail over Flatts Inlet is on track to be finished before the end of the winter, a spokesman for the group that funded the work said yesterday.

Colin Campbell, an architect and member of Friends of the Railway Trail, said that most of the bridge was in place.

He added that concrete support piers, which needed 30 days to be cast, would be the finishing touch.

Mr Campbell said: “One more pier and two more bridge sections to go and the connection from the North side to the South side of the Flatts Crossing will be complete.

“There is still activity to place the wood planks and finish the last details.”

Mr Campbell said the public could expect the bridge to be opened for use sometime in January or February.

He singled out Tucker and Laura Murphy, who helped set up the Friends of the Railway Trail group for praise and the volunteer team who had worked to make the bridge a reality.

Dr Murphy admitted that the footbridge still had “some engineering challenges” to face, such as the completion of the final pylon.

He added: “We’ve had a great team of volunteers – that’s really been one of the highlights of this whole project.”

He added: “There are a number of people who are architects but we’ve also had families of people who come out from the Flatts neighbourhood.

“We’ve really had kind of a cross-section of Bermuda helping us and it’s been really encouraging to see.”

Dr Murphy said that the team would need about a month to complete the final pylon, which did not include a break for Christmas.

He added: “I don’t want to set a date and then change it. We don’t want to raise people’s hopes only to say ‘we’re not quite there yet’.”

The Friends of the Railway Trail has been working on the project for several years, with most of the time taken up with planning.

The group received a $10,000 boost at the start of the month from the Garden Club of Bermuda, as well as a donation of plants and park benches to decorate either end of the bridge.