After five weeks of worry and speculation an announcement is finally due on the future of Cleveland Bridge.

After a meeting with workers yesterday, The Northern Echo understands that there is one clear bid left on the table, and that a final set of checks could mean signatures on documents and an announcement, possibly on Tuesday after the Bank Holiday.

We don’t know whether the new owners will be UK based, but a bid from another country is seeming more likely. We also don’t know what their plans will be and how much it may still have to change to make it a viable business once again.

But The Echo has been told that a bid worth more than most may have been rejected because it would have led to this treasured Bridge being dismantled and sold for scrap  - an offer that looked at the company as assets rather people and futures.

If that is right, that the administrators – working alongside the fiercely loyal local team of Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen, Darlington Council leader Heather Scott and MPs Peter Gibson and Paul Howell - have managed to avoid taking the company apart at any price, then they deserve the highest praise.

As one insider told The Echo, it “got quite messy” for a while and no-one was sure what the outcome would be. It could still be the worst news, but the word from inside the factory is that here is hope the end result will be a deal we can at least live with.

It is possible. Bills have to be paid and creditors have to be satisfied, but if there is still enough money promised to keep most of the workers and the famous Yarm Road site, then there is still a future.

And that means a future not only for these workers, but for young people across the region who wanted to design and build and who had looked to Cleveland Bridge as proof that this region was still the place to build their career because it made iconic structures that dominated cities around the world.

The order book is still a bit uncertian, with early claims of 18 months of work soon becoming 18 months of 'potential' projects if everything worked out and pencilled-in orders became actual earners.

Claims from within the factory that the overtime needed to fulfil the work that was there and secure some income was now not necessary because some orders had been lost seem to have been overtaken by events.

Now the focus will be on the red gates of Cleveland Bridge and whether they will be unlocked to let workers in or to let the assets out.