CAMPAIGNERS for a Second Mersey Crossing have been told the project could be given the go-ahead within the next two weeks. Key supporters of the Mersey Gateway project, who have been lobbying ministers in the Department for Transport, are hoping a final decision can be made before May's expected General Election. If work gets under way, the £335m bridge could create a staggering 6,920 jobs across the region, more than 95,000 sq metres of commercial floor space and an average 5% increase in house prices. The news broke as interested parties gathered at Liverpool Air -port on Saturday for a bird's-eye view of the proposed site. The 45-strong group of civic and business leaders, VIP and media representatives, toasted the prospect over a glass of champagne before flying 500ft over the Mersey, courtesy of VLM Airlines. Cllr Tony McDermott, the leader of Halton Borough Council and chairman of the Mersey Crossing Group, told guests: 'We're hopeful a decision will be made before the General Election is called and within the next couple of weeks. 'The project cannot be anyone's Plan B, and if the Government resorts to it as its Plan B then it certainly isn't ours. 'They will have to say what the alternative is if they let us down, but I don't think they will. It's a question of timing. 'We know the environmental concerns we have to progress, but the important thing is the momentum is there.' The bridge would run from the Central Expressway in Runcorn to the Eastern Bypass in Widnes and ultimately Speke Road, and would be a quarter of a mile to the east of the existing bridge. The preferred route would attract an estimated 90% of traffic from the current bridge. The Mersey Gateway, scheduled for completion by 2012, would cost the Department for Transport £200m with tolling over a 30-year period, £62m to buy and develop the land and £8m per year to maintain - compared with current costs of £4m per year. Last week, two meetings were held by the Mersey Crossing Group as part of a rapid extra lobbying exercise urging members to write letters to Alistair Darling, the secretary of state for the Department for Transport. | 
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