The long-awaited bridge will be open by February – eight weeks later than originally planned.

The completion date had already been moved to January 2016 from December.

Representatives from contractors Balfour Beatty, Aberdeen City Council and specialist landscape designers were at the event.

Balfour Beatty senior project manager, Ken Brown, said inaccurate maps of piping, cabling and gas mains provided by Aberdeen City Council are to blame.

Willie Young, ward councillor for Bridge of Don, said: “I know that there are issues with the maps and the locations of foundations, which has held up work so far, but this is often the most challenging part of a job like this.”

An Aberdeen City council spokeswoman said: “Due to delays associated with underground utilities, the contractor has been granted an extension of time to complete the contract by the end of December.

“As this extension leads into a period of greater risk of poor weather which could potentially affect the works, further discussions are being held with the contractor but no further extension of time has been agreed to date.

“Aberdeen City Council is reliant upon the information supplied by the utility companies, who themselves are reliant upon records that can be many decades old.

“In some cases the underground apparatus can be at a different location that indicated by the records or very old or abandoned apparatus that are no longer on record can be found.”

The Third Don Crossing will see the construction of a new single carriageway link road between the Parkway/Whitestripes Road junction and the Tillydrone Avenue/St Machar Drive junctions, including the construction of the new bridge.

Work started in November 2014.