Botanic Gardens users will soon see changes taking place to the arched bridge which leads into the gardens from the Armagh car park.

The concrete structure is too narrow for the number of people who use it — more than 400,000 people pass over it each year — and the balustrade, with its horizontal wires, does not meet current safety standards.

“A lot of families like to stop and look at the fish or ducks,” says Council landscape architect Dennis Preston. “The way it is now you can’t pass a wheelchair and a pushchair and the grade is too steep for some people.”

The bridge will be closed when work starts this month. Alternative access to the gardens from the car park will be provided during the work period.

The new structure will “clip” on top of the existing bridge. It will have a more gentle slope, a new vertical balustrade system and will be twice as wide as the old bridge.