Twelve bids were submitted for the €2.8 million job to reconstruct the Grand Harbour breakwater bridge, The Times has learnt.

The deadline for tenders had been extended by seven weeks to January 26 after the Contracts Department received several requests for more time from prospective bidders, an Infrastructure Ministry spokesman said.

The call for tenders itself had been delayed by seven months: When Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt unveiled the project last February, he had said it would be issued within a month but it eventually came out last October.

The bridge at the mouth of Grand Harbour breakwater is expected to be financed by the Malta Maritime Authority. Scheduled to be completed this year, it is expected to have a lifespan of 120 years.

The government is confident the project will be completed on time. The ministry spokesman said the seven-week extension was "not expected to have any impact on delivery time frames".

The steel bridge is one of the government's projects for the regeneration of Grand Harbour, which includes a lift linking Lascaris Wharf to the Upper Barrakka Gardens, the removal of the tank-cleaning facility at Rinella and the privatisation of Malta Shipyards.

Completed in 1906, the bridge was destroyed in 1941 in an attack by Italian E boats. One of the original cylindrical pillars is still standing while only a stump of the other still stands. The pillars are scheduled which means that although they may be restored, they cannot be moved or reduced in height.

Although the government's original plan was to reconstruct a replica of the Victorian bridge, it contained a lot of steel and was not considered cost-effective. As a result, a simpler design was drawn up incorporating a steel arch, a timber deck and an observation area.

Full development permission for the project was granted in March.