WORK is well under way on a 90 metre high bridge that forms a vital part of a controversial Private Finance Initiative (PFI) in the valleys.

The Pont Dewi Sant Bridge, part of the Sirhowy Enterprise Way (SEW), is currently being built at the northern end of Blackwood.

The cable-stay bridge, which will span 220 metres across the Sirhowy valley from the A4048 to the SEW spine road, will not be finished until the rest of the bypass between Blackwood and Oakdale is completed in spring 2006.

The 'A' frame of the bridge is expected to be nearly half built by the end of October. Work on the £55 million scheme was held up in February and March this year when environmentalists set up camp among the trees of St David's Wood - the route of the bypass.

The deadlock was only resolved when the Under Sheriff of Gwent, David Bowen, evicted the protesters for defying a court order requiring them to leave the site.

A spokesman for Costains, the firm behind the bypass, said of the Pont Dewi Sant Bridge: "It is the jewel in the project's crown. We are on schedule and we are making good progress with the bridge.

"In UK civil engineering terms, it is a very significant bridge." But not everyone is happy about the sheer size of the bridge. Carl Taylor, a countryside warden who campaigned against the SEW, lives in a cottage on Cwm Penmaen which lies in the shadow of the structure.

"It is a marvellous feat of engineering but unfortunately it is punching a hole straight through the fabric of the valley," he said.

"It is wrong type of structure for a heavily wooded valley and is very much out of place.

"It should be a gateway to a city because it is similar to the second Severn Crossing."