The company was unable to finance the building of Ordish's design, and in 1870 a new Act of Parliament was passed giving the company permission to build a bridge wide, crossing the river with five spans. Ordish was asked to design a cheaper bridge to the new specifications but refused to change the design, so Julian Tolmé was appointed designer in his place. Tolmé designed a starkly functional lattice truss bridge of wrought iron. It cost £40,000 (about £ in ) to build, and consisted of five identical spans, supported by four pairs of concrete-filled iron piers; each of the cylindrical piers was sunk into the riverbed. The bridge was due to open in early 1873, but the workmen building it went on strike, and a third Act of Parliament was necessary to give the company time to resolve the dispute and complete the project.