Engineers designing a £2.6 million bridge to be built over Manchester Road have looked to Spain for inspiration.

Last month a national project to create new cycling and walking routes in 79 communities triumphed in a television lottery vote to win a £50 million grant.

Bradford's new bridge is part of the Sustrans' Connect2 scheme and will now be built across the busy road as a replacement.

Detailed plans will now be drawn up and engineers are using the Agro footbridge in Spain as inspiration.

Dave Stevens, of Sustrans' Connect2, said: "We are currently formalising a memorandum of understanding with Bradford Trident and Bradford Council to agree how to make this scheme a reality. As the plan moves forward to a detailed design we are investigating similar engineering solutions abroad, and have drawn particular inspiration from the Agro Footbridge at Arteixo in Northern Spain."

Sustrans has been working with the scheme for 18 months and the Bradford scheme is one of the more advanced. It is hoped the new bridge will be in place by late 2009.

John Anderson, the Council's principal engineer for highway structures, said: "The Agro bridge is one that we like the look of but we will make it our own.

"During the initial consultation people said they wanted something iconic and that it should be slender and elegant and be cable-stayed.

"Engineers within the Council are currently looking at the preliminary design and refining it. We then hope to come up with an affordable structure that is still iconic."

He explained it would be designed with shallow ramps to allow it to be used by cyclists as well as pedestrians.

The Connect2 project was one of four finalists in the Big Lottery Fund's The People's £50 Million Lottery Giveaway. It was up against an expansion scheme for Cornwall's famous Eden Project, called The Edge, as well as a plan to protect the ecology of Sherwood Forest and a proposal to build a Black Country Urban Park.

Programmes were aired showcasing each of the four schemes. Voting took place by phone and online, with Connect2 taking 42 per cent of the vote.

Pupils at nearby Newby Primary School were involved in the design and called on Bradfordians to help them get a new bridge by voting in the lottery giveaway.