Forth Road Bridge
Encyclopedia
The Forth Road Bridge is a suspension bridge
in east central
Scotland. The bridge, opened in 1964, spans the Firth of Forth
, connecting the capital city Edinburgh
, at South Queensferry
, to Fife
, at North Queensferry
. The bridge replaced a centuries-old ferry service to carry vehicular traffic, cyclists, and pedestrians across the Forth; rail crossings are made by the adjacent and historic Forth Bridge.
Issues regarding the continued tolling of the bridge, and those over its deteriorating condition and proposals to have it replaced or supplemented by an additional crossing, have caused it to become something of a political football
for the Scottish Parliament
, which eventually voted to scrap tolls on the bridge with effect from 11 February 2008.
, queen consort
of King Malcolm III
, who founded a ferry service to transport religious pilgrims from Edinburgh to Dunfermline Abbey
and St Andrews
. Its creation gave rise to the port towns of Queensferry and North Queensferry, which remain to this day; and the service remained in uninterrupted use as a passenger ferry for over eight hundred years. As early as the 1740s there were proposals for a road crossing at the site, although their viability was only considered following the construction of the first Forth bridge
in 1890.
The importance of the crossing to vehicular traffic was underpinned when the Great Britain road numbering scheme
was drawn up in the 1920s. The planners wished the arterial A9 road to be routed across the Forth here, although the unwillingness to have a ferry crossing as part of this route led to the A90 number being assigned instead.
There was a period of renewed lobbying for a road crossing in the 1920s and 1930s, at which time the only vehicle crossing was a single passenger and vehicle ferry. Sir William Denny championed the expansion of that service in the 1930s, providing and operating on behalf of the London and North Eastern Railway
two additional ferries that aimed to supplement the services of the adjacent railway bridge. Their success allowed for the addition of two more craft in the 1940s and 1950s, by which time the ferries were making 40,000 crossings annually, carrying 1.5 million passengers and 800,000 vehicles.
With the then newest and nearest bridge spanning the Forth (the Kincardine Bridge
, built in 1936) still around 15 miles (24.1 km) upstream, the upsurge in demand for a road crossing between Edinburgh and Fife prompted the UK Government to establish the Forth Road Bridge Joint Board (FRBJB) by Act of Parliament
in 1947 to oversee the implementation of a new bridge to replace the ferry service. In 1955 the authorities on either side investigated and drew up an alternative scheme for a tunnel beneath the estuary. This was known as the Maunsell Scheme, and was projected to run somewhat closer to the rail bridge than the present road bridge. The scheme was abandoned as being too ambitious and reverted to a bridge concept.
The final construction plan was accepted in February 1958 and work began in September of that year.
Mott, Hay and Anderson
and Freeman Fox & Partners
carried out the design work and Sir William Arrol & Co.
constructed the bridge at a cost of £11.5 million, while the total cost of the project including road connections and realignments was £19.5 million. Seven lives were lost during construction before the bridge was opened by Queen Elizabeth II
and the Duke of Edinburgh
on 4 September 1964. The ferry service was discontinued as of that date. The bridge's management was delegated to the FRBJB, and remained so until 2002 when its operation was transferred to a new body with a wider remit, the Forth Estuary Transport Authority
.
On 1 December 2010 the bridge was closed for the first time due to heavy snow. After several accidents meant snowploughs were unable to clear the carriageways, the bridge was closed in both directions at 6.40 a.m. and remained closed for several hours.
The bridge's central main span is 1,006 m (3,298 ft) long, its two side spans are each 408 m (1338 ft) long, and the approach viaducts are 252 m (827 ft) on the north side and 438 m (1,437 ft) on the south side. At a total length of 2,512 m (8,242 ft), it was the longest suspension bridge span outside the United States and the fourth-longest span in the world at the time of its construction. The bridge comprises 39,000 tonnes of steel
and 115,000 cubic metres of concrete
. Its width comprises a dual carriageway
road with two lanes in each direction bounded by cycle/footpaths on each side. The main strung cables are 590 mm in diameter and each carries 13,800 tonnes of the bridge's load by suspending 11,618 5 mm diameter high tensile wires.
The bridge forms a crucial part of the corridor between south-east and north-east Scotland, linking Edinburgh to Perth
, Dundee
and Aberdeen
by the A90 road and its sister M90 motorway
, which begins 1.67 miles (2.7 km) north of the bridge's northern terminus. The bridge carried around 2.5 million vehicles in its first year but the annual figure has risen steadily over time to around 11.8 million vehicles in 2004. The bridge carried its 250 millionth vehicle in 2002.
It was awarded Historic Scotland
's Category A listed structure status in 2001.
Initially, it was suggested that tolling would cease once the original cost of construction plus the accrued interest
had been repaid - this was done in 1993 and it was planned that tolls would not be levied after May 1995. However, the legislation enabling the levying of tolls was instead renewed by Parliament (originally that of the UK but now the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament) on three separate occasions in 1998, 2003 and 2006.
Originally, a toll was paid for each direction of travel with sets of toll booths on both carriageways. In 1997, a decision was made to double the northbound toll (then 40p, to 80p) and remove the southbound toll. The belief was that almost all traffic makes a return journey across the bridge, and that the removal of the southbound toll would result in a reduction of congestion for southbound traffic without reducing overall toll revenues.
The Forth Estuary Transport Authority (FETA) justified the continued use of tolls by suggesting they were necessary to fund maintenance and improvement works. These included the construction of defences around the submerged piers forming the bases of the main towers in the event of collision in the Firth. The main towers were also strengthened with internal steel columns (the original tower structure having been hollow) and had hydraulic rams jack up these sections to transfer a portion of the load to the new steelwork. Also, the vertical cables suspending the deck had their bolts replaced after a single detected failure. A new paint system required development for the bridge (the original having been phased out due to environmental concerns).
In late 2005, FETA's committee approved a proposal for a complete revamp of the system of toll levies. The minimum toll would be set to the existing £1 figure, but would increase dependent on the time of day, rising to a maximum of £4 for evening rush hour travel. All tolls would be halved for cars with more than one occupant, as an incentive to drivers to share cars and make fewer journeys. According to FETA's chairman Lawrence Marshall, the system would provide the most efficiency, claiming that 80% of peak-time journeys are made by single-occupant vehicles. The proposal, passed with the chairman's casting vote after the committee was deadlocked, was referred to the Scottish Executive
in December 2005, and implementation planned for October 2007 subject to approval by transport minister Tavish Scott
. Environmental groups welcomed the proposal, although local politicians condemned it as simply a means of raising capital. At the same time, a counter-argument was tabled by Fife councillors proposing the complete removal of tolls.
The Scottish Parliament debated the proposals in January 2006, and the affair became a major political issue after Westminster-based MPs
Gordon Brown
and Alistair Darling
(Chancellor of the Exchequer
and Secretary of State for Scotland
respectively) were seen to describe the variable tolling plan as "dead in the water". Scottish First Minister
Jack McConnell
insisted his Labour Party
colleagues were misquoted and himself refused to rule out the plan, receiving considerable condemnation from the opposition Scottish National Party
.
The political situation was particularly important given that by late January 2006, campaigning was well underway for a by-election
scheduled to take place for the Westminster constituency of Dunfermline and West Fife
in which the north end of the bridge is situated. The by-election, scheduled for 9 February, was contested by - in addition to the major political parties in Scotland - an Abolish Forth Bridge Tolls Party. It was eventually won by Liberal Democrat
candidate Willie Rennie
, overturning a large Labour majority on a 16% swing
.
In the aftermath of the by-election defeat, media speculation suggested the Executive had turned against the proposals, and Tavish Scott eventually confirmed their rejection and the retention of the existing toll structure on 1 March 2006. FETA condemned the decision, while local opposition MSPs
charged the minister that his tolling review short-changed Fifers as tolls were axed on the Erskine Bridge
leaving tolls on only the Forth and Tay Road Bridge
, both in Fife.
after the Scottish parliamentary election of May 2007
, a new debate on the abolition of tolls was opened by Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson
on 31 May 2007, where it was agreed by a large majority. Toll levies at that point totalled £16 million annually.
The Abolition of Bridge Tolls (Scotland) Bill, required to revoke legislation mandating toll collection on the bridge, was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 3 September 2007, passed on 20 December 2007, and received royal assent on 24 January 2008. The tolls were removed on 11 February 2008 at 00:01 GMT. Ironically this immediately followed a major upgrade and reconfiguration of the tolls on the northbound carriageway (the toll on the southbound carriageway had been removed some years before, simplifying the arrangement as most journeys were, and remain, two-way).
There has been concern at FETA over the structural wear-and-tear of the bridge. The planned theoretical capacity for the bridge (30,000 vehicles per day in each direction) is routinely exceeded as traffic levels have outstripped predictions. FETA predicts that traffic could rise to an average of 40,000 vehicles per day in each direction by 2010 and the Scottish Executive admit that 60,000 vehicles is not uncommon for weekday travel. This has raised concerns about the lifespan of the bridge, originally planned at 120 years.
2003 saw an inspection programme launched (at a cost of £1.2 million) to assess the condition of the bridge's main suspension cables after excessive corrosion was discovered in a number of older bridges in the United States of a similar design and size. The study, which was completed in 2005, found that the main cables had suffered an estimated 8-10% loss of strength. Future projections highlight the likelihood of an accelerating loss of strength, with traffic restrictions to limit loading required in 2014 in the worst case scenario, followed by full closure as early as 2020.
Further monitoring and remedial work is now under way. An acoustic monitoring system, commissioned in August 2006, uses listening devices to monitor any further strands snapping and pinpoint their location within the main cables.
Given the significance of the findings of the first internal inspection, in November 2005 the Scottish Executive appointed Flint & Neill Partnership to audit the results. The purpose of the audit was to carry out a desk study of the findings and to advise the Scottish Executive whether those findings were reached using a process of appropriate rigour and whether the conclusions were reasonable. Flint & Neill appointed New York based Ammann & Whitney
to act as sub-consultants providing specialist advice using experience gained from inspections and assessments carried out in America. In January 2006, an audit report to the Scottish Executive concluded that FETA’s consultant had performed the initial internal inspection and cable strength calculation in accordance with accepted practice in the United States and in general conformance with accepted industry guidelines published in 2004 by the NCHRP. Flint & Neill noted that the initial investigation by FETA “was not prompted by the discovery of any concerns with the Forth Road Bridge cables but as a prudent response to the results of findings in the USA. When the original scope for this initial investigation was determined, the severity of the findings was not anticipated.” The audit report suggested that traffic restrictions could be required as early as 2013.
A number of options are being implemented to increase the bridge's lifespan. These include an extensive dehumidification
programme to slow the rate of corrosion in the main cables by installing a system that will keep the air in the voids between the strands that make up the main cables at a humidity level of below 40%. Engineering consultants Faber Maunsell began work on the project in 2006. The works are planned to take two and a half years at a cost of £7.8 million. As part of the works, some of the corroded cable strands are to be spliced
.
The strategic transport importance of the road bridge and the threat of closure by 2020 if major structural work is not undertaken have led to fears of serious economic consequences, especially as work on a new crossing may take a decade.
The traffic levels across the Firth of Forth have also led to the building of the Upper Forth Crossing
adjacent to the existing Kincardine Bridge
. This new bridge, which opened in November 2008, may also take some traffic from the Forth Road Bridge. On 1 October 2008 it was announced that the new bridge would be called the "Clackmannanshire Bridge".
Proposals for an additional road crossing at Queensferry were drawn up in the early 1990s, but met stiff opposition from environmentalists and from Edinburgh City Council
on the grounds of the increased traffic it would generate. Following the Labour victory in the 1997 general election
, the proposals were shelved; however, they have resurfaced as of 2005, given the concerns over the existing bridge's lifespan. A new cable-stayed bridge
has been announced at an estimated cost of between £3.25 billion and £4.22 billion. There remains considerable opposition to the project on the same grounds as before, particularly from the Scottish Green Party
.
The funding for the new bridge is uncertain: the Scottish Government intends to replace public-private partnership
funding for such schemes with the Scottish Futures Trust
, but details for this have not been agreed. Construction industry trade newspaper Construction News reports that work on the new bridge is planned to run between 2011 and 2017. The December 2008 transport blueprint from the Scottish National Party
indicates that a new bridge will be operational by 2016. On 16 December 2010 the Scottish Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of building a new bridge over the Firth of Forth.
solicitied for tenders to construct the proposed bridge. Although Transport Scotland received 39 expressions of interest, concerns over the risks associated with the fixed-price contract resulted in only two consortia of large construction companies bidding. Due to the bidders' concerns that the bidding process itself would prove to be an expensive proposition, the Scottish Government allocated £10 million to defray the bidders' costs during the full bidding process.
One was Forthspan, a consortium of construction companies Morgan Sindall
, BAM Nuttall, Balfour Beatty
, and Vinci. In 2010 Vinci withdrew from the consortium, and was replaced by Danish construction firm MT Højgaard, which was part of the consortium that built the Øresund Bridge.
The second bidding consortium was Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors (FCBC), which consists of Dragados
, Hochtief
, American Bridge
, and Morrison Construction
.
The two consortia submitted their bids in early 2011 and in March 2011 the Scottish Government announced that FCBC had been awarded the contract. . Preparatory works for the new bridge began in September 2011 with works beginning at the southern end of the M90 to build the northern approach roads.
Suspension bridge
A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. Outside Tibet and Bhutan, where the first examples of this type of bridge were built in the 15th century, this type of bridge dates from the early 19th century...
in east central
Central Belt
The Central Belt of Scotland is a common term used to describe the area of highest population density within Scotland. Despite the name, it is not geographically central but is nevertheless situated at the 'waist' of Scotland on a conventional map and the term 'central' is used in many local...
Scotland. The bridge, opened in 1964, spans the Firth of Forth
Firth of Forth
The Firth of Forth is the estuary or firth of Scotland's River Forth, where it flows into the North Sea, between Fife to the north, and West Lothian, the City of Edinburgh and East Lothian to the south...
, connecting the capital city Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, at South Queensferry
South Queensferry
South Queensferry , also called Queensferry, is a former Royal Burgh in West Lothian now part of the City of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located some ten miles to the north west of the city centre, on the shore of the Firth of Forth between the Forth Bridge and the Forth Road Bridge, approximately 8...
, to Fife
Fife
Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...
, at North Queensferry
North Queensferry
North Queensferry is a village in Fife, Scotland, on the Firth of Forth, between the Forth Bridge and the Forth Road Bridge, and from Edinburgh. According to the 2008 population estimate, the village has a population of 1,150. It is the southernmost settlement in Fife.The Scottish Gaelic name...
. The bridge replaced a centuries-old ferry service to carry vehicular traffic, cyclists, and pedestrians across the Forth; rail crossings are made by the adjacent and historic Forth Bridge.
Issues regarding the continued tolling of the bridge, and those over its deteriorating condition and proposals to have it replaced or supplemented by an additional crossing, have caused it to become something of a political football
Political football
A political football is a political topic or issue that is continually debated but left unresolved. The term is used often during a political election campaign to highlight issues that have not been completely addressed, such as the natural environment and abortion.There are many reasons that an...
for the Scottish Parliament
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...
, which eventually voted to scrap tolls on the bridge with effect from 11 February 2008.
History
The first crossing at what is now the site of the bridge was established in the 11th century by MargaretSaint Margaret of Scotland
Saint Margaret of Scotland , also known as Margaret of Wessex and Queen Margaret of Scotland, was an English princess of the House of Wessex. Born in exile in Hungary, she was the sister of Edgar Ætheling, the short-ruling and uncrowned Anglo-Saxon King of England...
, queen consort
Queen consort
A queen consort is the wife of a reigning king. A queen consort usually shares her husband's rank and holds the feminine equivalent of the king's monarchical titles. Historically, queens consort do not share the king regnant's political and military powers. Most queens in history were queens consort...
of King Malcolm III
Malcolm III of Scotland
Máel Coluim mac Donnchada , was King of Scots...
, who founded a ferry service to transport religious pilgrims from Edinburgh to Dunfermline Abbey
Dunfermline Abbey
Dunfermline Abbey is as a Church of Scotland Parish Church located in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. In 2002 the congregation had 806 members. The minister is the Reverend Alastair Jessamine...
and St Andrews
St Andrews
St Andrews is a university town and former royal burgh on the east coast of Fife in Scotland. The town is named after Saint Andrew the Apostle.St Andrews has a population of 16,680, making this the fifth largest settlement in Fife....
. Its creation gave rise to the port towns of Queensferry and North Queensferry, which remain to this day; and the service remained in uninterrupted use as a passenger ferry for over eight hundred years. As early as the 1740s there were proposals for a road crossing at the site, although their viability was only considered following the construction of the first Forth bridge
Forth Bridge
The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge over the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland, to the east of the Forth Road Bridge, and 14 kilometres west of central Edinburgh. It was opened on 4 March 1890, and spans a total length of...
in 1890.
The importance of the crossing to vehicular traffic was underpinned when the Great Britain road numbering scheme
Great Britain road numbering scheme
The Great Britain road numbering scheme is a numbering scheme used to classify and identify all roads in Great Britain. Each road is given a single letter, which represents the road's category, and a subsequent number, with a length of between 1 and 4 digits. Originally introduced to arrange...
was drawn up in the 1920s. The planners wished the arterial A9 road to be routed across the Forth here, although the unwillingness to have a ferry crossing as part of this route led to the A90 number being assigned instead.
There was a period of renewed lobbying for a road crossing in the 1920s and 1930s, at which time the only vehicle crossing was a single passenger and vehicle ferry. Sir William Denny championed the expansion of that service in the 1930s, providing and operating on behalf of the London and North Eastern Railway
London and North Eastern Railway
The London and North Eastern Railway was the second-largest of the "Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain...
two additional ferries that aimed to supplement the services of the adjacent railway bridge. Their success allowed for the addition of two more craft in the 1940s and 1950s, by which time the ferries were making 40,000 crossings annually, carrying 1.5 million passengers and 800,000 vehicles.
With the then newest and nearest bridge spanning the Forth (the Kincardine Bridge
Kincardine Bridge
The Kincardine Bridge is a road bridge crossing the Firth of Forth from Falkirk council area to Kincardine-on-Forth, Fife, Scotland.-History:The bridge was constructed between 1932 and 1936, designed by Donald Watson...
, built in 1936) still around 15 miles (24.1 km) upstream, the upsurge in demand for a road crossing between Edinburgh and Fife prompted the UK Government to establish the Forth Road Bridge Joint Board (FRBJB) by Act of Parliament
Act of Parliament
An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...
in 1947 to oversee the implementation of a new bridge to replace the ferry service. In 1955 the authorities on either side investigated and drew up an alternative scheme for a tunnel beneath the estuary. This was known as the Maunsell Scheme, and was projected to run somewhat closer to the rail bridge than the present road bridge. The scheme was abandoned as being too ambitious and reverted to a bridge concept.
The final construction plan was accepted in February 1958 and work began in September of that year.
Mott, Hay and Anderson
Mott, Hay and Anderson
Mott, Hay and Anderson was a successful 20th century firm of consulting civil engineers based in the United Kingdom. The company traded until 1989, when it merged with Sir M. MacDonald & Partners to form Mott MacDonald.-Early years:...
and Freeman Fox & Partners
Hyder Consulting
Hyder Consulting is a multi-national advisory and design consultancy with particular specialisation in the transport, property, utilities and environmental sectors. The firm employs approximately 4,200 people across the UK, Europe, Germany, Middle East, Asia and Australia and has been listed on the...
carried out the design work and Sir William Arrol & Co.
Sir William Arrol & Co.
Sir William Arrol & Co. was a leading Scottish civil engineering business founded by William Arrol and based in Glasgow. It built some of the most famous bridges in the United Kingdom including the Forth Bridge and Tower Bridge in London.-Early history:...
constructed the bridge at a cost of £11.5 million, while the total cost of the project including road connections and realignments was £19.5 million. Seven lives were lost during construction before the bridge was opened by Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
and the Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch....
on 4 September 1964. The ferry service was discontinued as of that date. The bridge's management was delegated to the FRBJB, and remained so until 2002 when its operation was transferred to a new body with a wider remit, the Forth Estuary Transport Authority
Forth Estuary Transport Authority
The Forth Estuary Transport Authority is the authority responsible for the maintenance of the Forth Road Bridge over the Firth of Forth in eastern central Scotland...
.
On 1 December 2010 the bridge was closed for the first time due to heavy snow. After several accidents meant snowploughs were unable to clear the carriageways, the bridge was closed in both directions at 6.40 a.m. and remained closed for several hours.
Statistics
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
and 115,000 cubic metres of concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
. Its width comprises a dual carriageway
Dual carriageway
A dual carriageway is a class of highway with two carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation...
road with two lanes in each direction bounded by cycle/footpaths on each side. The main strung cables are 590 mm in diameter and each carries 13,800 tonnes of the bridge's load by suspending 11,618 5 mm diameter high tensile wires.
The bridge forms a crucial part of the corridor between south-east and north-east Scotland, linking Edinburgh to Perth
Perth, Scotland
Perth is a town and former city and royal burgh in central Scotland. Located on the banks of the River Tay, it is the administrative centre of Perth and Kinross council area and the historic county town of Perthshire...
, Dundee
Dundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
and Aberdeen
Aberdeen
Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....
by the A90 road and its sister M90 motorway
M90 motorway
The M90 is a motorway in Scotland. It runs from Inverkeithing, at the north end of the Forth Road Bridge, to Perth, passing Dunfermline, Cowdenbeath and Kinross on the way...
, which begins 1.67 miles (2.7 km) north of the bridge's northern terminus. The bridge carried around 2.5 million vehicles in its first year but the annual figure has risen steadily over time to around 11.8 million vehicles in 2004. The bridge carried its 250 millionth vehicle in 2002.
It was awarded Historic Scotland
Historic Scotland
Historic Scotland is an executive agency of the Scottish Government, responsible for historic monuments in Scotland.-Role:As its website states:...
's Category A listed structure status in 2001.
Tolling issues
On 11 February 2008 tolls were abolished on the bridge.Initially, it was suggested that tolling would cease once the original cost of construction plus the accrued interest
Interest
Interest is a fee paid by a borrower of assets to the owner as a form of compensation for the use of the assets. It is most commonly the price paid for the use of borrowed money, or money earned by deposited funds....
had been repaid - this was done in 1993 and it was planned that tolls would not be levied after May 1995. However, the legislation enabling the levying of tolls was instead renewed by Parliament (originally that of the UK but now the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament) on three separate occasions in 1998, 2003 and 2006.
Originally, a toll was paid for each direction of travel with sets of toll booths on both carriageways. In 1997, a decision was made to double the northbound toll (then 40p, to 80p) and remove the southbound toll. The belief was that almost all traffic makes a return journey across the bridge, and that the removal of the southbound toll would result in a reduction of congestion for southbound traffic without reducing overall toll revenues.
The Forth Estuary Transport Authority (FETA) justified the continued use of tolls by suggesting they were necessary to fund maintenance and improvement works. These included the construction of defences around the submerged piers forming the bases of the main towers in the event of collision in the Firth. The main towers were also strengthened with internal steel columns (the original tower structure having been hollow) and had hydraulic rams jack up these sections to transfer a portion of the load to the new steelwork. Also, the vertical cables suspending the deck had their bolts replaced after a single detected failure. A new paint system required development for the bridge (the original having been phased out due to environmental concerns).
Variable tolling proposals
| Start | End | Toll |
| 00:00 | 07:30 | £1 |
| 07:30 | 08:30 | £2 |
| 08:30 | 14:00 | £1 |
| 14:00 | 15:00 | £2 |
| 15:00 | 16:00 | £3 |
| 16:00 | 18:00 | £4 |
| 18:00 | 18:30 | £3 |
| 18:30 | 19:00 | £2 |
| 19:00 | 24:00 | £1 |
| source: Edinburgh Today | ||
In late 2005, FETA's committee approved a proposal for a complete revamp of the system of toll levies. The minimum toll would be set to the existing £1 figure, but would increase dependent on the time of day, rising to a maximum of £4 for evening rush hour travel. All tolls would be halved for cars with more than one occupant, as an incentive to drivers to share cars and make fewer journeys. According to FETA's chairman Lawrence Marshall, the system would provide the most efficiency, claiming that 80% of peak-time journeys are made by single-occupant vehicles. The proposal, passed with the chairman's casting vote after the committee was deadlocked, was referred to the Scottish Executive
Scottish Executive
The Scottish Government is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland. It was established in 1999 as the Scottish Executive, from the extant Scottish Office, and the term Scottish Executive remains its legal name under the Scotland Act 1998...
in December 2005, and implementation planned for October 2007 subject to approval by transport minister Tavish Scott
Tavish Scott
Tavish Hamilton Scott MSP is a Scottish politician and MSP for Shetland. He was Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats from 2008 to 2011...
. Environmental groups welcomed the proposal, although local politicians condemned it as simply a means of raising capital. At the same time, a counter-argument was tabled by Fife councillors proposing the complete removal of tolls.
The Scottish Parliament debated the proposals in January 2006, and the affair became a major political issue after Westminster-based MPs
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
and Alistair Darling
Alistair Darling
Alistair Maclean Darling is a Scottish Labour Party politician who has been a Member of Parliament since 1987, currently for Edinburgh South West. He served as the Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2007 to 2010...
(Chancellor of the Exchequer
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called the Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
and Secretary of State for Scotland
Secretary of State for Scotland
The Secretary of State for Scotland is the principal minister of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom with responsibilities for Scotland. He heads the Scotland Office , a government department based in London and Edinburgh. The post was created soon after the Union of the Crowns, but was...
respectively) were seen to describe the variable tolling plan as "dead in the water". Scottish First Minister
First Minister of Scotland
The First Minister of Scotland is the political leader of Scotland and head of the Scottish Government. The First Minister chairs the Scottish Cabinet and is primarily responsible for the formulation, development and presentation of Scottish Government policy...
Jack McConnell
Jack McConnell
Jack Wilson McConnell, Baron McConnell of Glenscorrodale is a British Labour life peer in the House of Lords. He was third First Minister of Scotland from 2001 to 2007, making him the longest serving First Minister in the history of the Scottish Parliament...
insisted his Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
colleagues were misquoted and himself refused to rule out the plan, receiving considerable condemnation from the opposition Scottish National Party
Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....
.
The political situation was particularly important given that by late January 2006, campaigning was well underway for a by-election
Dunfermline and West Fife by-election, 2006
The Dunfermline and West Fife by-election, in Dunfermline and West Fife, Scotland, was held on 9 February 2006 following the death of sitting Labour MP Rachel Squire on 6 January. The by-election was the first seat to change hands in the 2005 Parliament when Willie Rennie won the seat for the...
scheduled to take place for the Westminster constituency of Dunfermline and West Fife
Dunfermline and West Fife (UK Parliament constituency)
Dunfermline and West Fife is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was created for the 2005 general election from all of the old Dunfermline West and parts of the old Dunfermline East constituencies...
in which the north end of the bridge is situated. The by-election, scheduled for 9 February, was contested by - in addition to the major political parties in Scotland - an Abolish Forth Bridge Tolls Party. It was eventually won by Liberal Democrat
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
candidate Willie Rennie
Willie Rennie
William Cowan Rennie MSP is a Scottish politician and current Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats.After college, Rennie spent most of his early career as a Liberal Democrat campaigner and official before working as a public relations consultant in the private sector...
, overturning a large Labour majority on a 16% swing
Swing (politics)
An electoral swing analysis shows the extent of change in voter support from one election to another. It is an indicator of voter support for individual candidates or political parties, or voter preference between two or more candidates or parties...
.
In the aftermath of the by-election defeat, media speculation suggested the Executive had turned against the proposals, and Tavish Scott eventually confirmed their rejection and the retention of the existing toll structure on 1 March 2006. FETA condemned the decision, while local opposition MSPs
Member of the Scottish Parliament
Member of the Scottish Parliament is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament.-Methods of Election:MSPs are elected in one of two ways:...
charged the minister that his tolling review short-changed Fifers as tolls were axed on the Erskine Bridge
Erskine Bridge
The Erskine Bridge is a cable-stayed box girder bridge spanning the River Clyde in west central Scotland, connecting West Dunbartonshire with Renfrewshire....
leaving tolls on only the Forth and Tay Road Bridge
Tay Road Bridge
The Tay Road Bridge is a bridge across the Firth of Tay from Newport-on-Tay in Fife to Dundee in Scotland. At around , it is one of the longest road bridges in Europe, and slopes gradually downward towards Dundee...
, both in Fife.
Abolition
Following the formation of an SNP minority governmentGovernment of the 3rd Scottish Parliament
The Government of the 3rd Scottish Parliament was formed after the 2007 elections to the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Government is headed by First Minister Alex Salmond.- First Salmond government :...
after the Scottish parliamentary election of May 2007
Scottish Parliament election, 2007
The 2007 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the Scottish Parliament. It was the third general election to the devolved Scottish Parliament since it was created in 1999...
, a new debate on the abolition of tolls was opened by Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson
Stewart Stevenson
Stewart Stevenson is a Scottish politician who became a member of the Scottish Parliament in 2001....
on 31 May 2007, where it was agreed by a large majority. Toll levies at that point totalled £16 million annually.
The Abolition of Bridge Tolls (Scotland) Bill, required to revoke legislation mandating toll collection on the bridge, was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 3 September 2007, passed on 20 December 2007, and received royal assent on 24 January 2008. The tolls were removed on 11 February 2008 at 00:01 GMT. Ironically this immediately followed a major upgrade and reconfiguration of the tolls on the northbound carriageway (the toll on the southbound carriageway had been removed some years before, simplifying the arrangement as most journeys were, and remain, two-way).
Structural issues
2003 saw an inspection programme launched (at a cost of £1.2 million) to assess the condition of the bridge's main suspension cables after excessive corrosion was discovered in a number of older bridges in the United States of a similar design and size. The study, which was completed in 2005, found that the main cables had suffered an estimated 8-10% loss of strength. Future projections highlight the likelihood of an accelerating loss of strength, with traffic restrictions to limit loading required in 2014 in the worst case scenario, followed by full closure as early as 2020.
Further monitoring and remedial work is now under way. An acoustic monitoring system, commissioned in August 2006, uses listening devices to monitor any further strands snapping and pinpoint their location within the main cables.
Given the significance of the findings of the first internal inspection, in November 2005 the Scottish Executive appointed Flint & Neill Partnership to audit the results. The purpose of the audit was to carry out a desk study of the findings and to advise the Scottish Executive whether those findings were reached using a process of appropriate rigour and whether the conclusions were reasonable. Flint & Neill appointed New York based Ammann & Whitney
Ammann & Whitney
Ammann & Whitney is a full-service architecture and engineering firm that provides design and construction services for public and private sector projects...
to act as sub-consultants providing specialist advice using experience gained from inspections and assessments carried out in America. In January 2006, an audit report to the Scottish Executive concluded that FETA’s consultant had performed the initial internal inspection and cable strength calculation in accordance with accepted practice in the United States and in general conformance with accepted industry guidelines published in 2004 by the NCHRP. Flint & Neill noted that the initial investigation by FETA “was not prompted by the discovery of any concerns with the Forth Road Bridge cables but as a prudent response to the results of findings in the USA. When the original scope for this initial investigation was determined, the severity of the findings was not anticipated.” The audit report suggested that traffic restrictions could be required as early as 2013.
A number of options are being implemented to increase the bridge's lifespan. These include an extensive dehumidification
Humidity
Humidity is a term for the amount of water vapor in the air, and can refer to any one of several measurements of humidity. Formally, humid air is not "moist air" but a mixture of water vapor and other constituents of air, and humidity is defined in terms of the water content of this mixture,...
programme to slow the rate of corrosion in the main cables by installing a system that will keep the air in the voids between the strands that make up the main cables at a humidity level of below 40%. Engineering consultants Faber Maunsell began work on the project in 2006. The works are planned to take two and a half years at a cost of £7.8 million. As part of the works, some of the corroded cable strands are to be spliced
Rope splicing
Rope splicing in ropework is the forming of a semi-permanent joint between two ropes or two parts of the same rope by partly untwisting and then interweaving their strands. Splices can be used to form a stopper at the end of a line, to form a loop or an eye in a rope, or for joining two ropes...
.
Proposals for a new Forth Road Bridge
The traffic levels across the Firth of Forth have also led to the building of the Upper Forth Crossing
Upper Forth Crossing
The Clackmannanshire Bridge is a road bridge over the Firth of Forth in Scotland which opened to traffic on Wednesday 19 November 2008. Prior to 1 October 2008 the bridge was referred to as the upper Forth crossing while the name was chosen....
adjacent to the existing Kincardine Bridge
Kincardine Bridge
The Kincardine Bridge is a road bridge crossing the Firth of Forth from Falkirk council area to Kincardine-on-Forth, Fife, Scotland.-History:The bridge was constructed between 1932 and 1936, designed by Donald Watson...
. This new bridge, which opened in November 2008, may also take some traffic from the Forth Road Bridge. On 1 October 2008 it was announced that the new bridge would be called the "Clackmannanshire Bridge".
Proposals for an additional road crossing at Queensferry were drawn up in the early 1990s, but met stiff opposition from environmentalists and from Edinburgh City Council
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
on the grounds of the increased traffic it would generate. Following the Labour victory in the 1997 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...
, the proposals were shelved; however, they have resurfaced as of 2005, given the concerns over the existing bridge's lifespan. A new cable-stayed bridge
Cable-stayed bridge
A cable-stayed bridge is a bridge that consists of one or more columns , with cables supporting the bridge deck....
has been announced at an estimated cost of between £3.25 billion and £4.22 billion. There remains considerable opposition to the project on the same grounds as before, particularly from the Scottish Green Party
Scottish Green Party
The Scottish Green Party is a green party in Scotland. It has two MSPs in the devolved Scottish Parliament, Alison Johnstone, representing Lothian, and Patrick Harvie, for Glasgow.-Organisation:...
.
The funding for the new bridge is uncertain: the Scottish Government intends to replace public-private partnership
Public-private partnership
Public–private partnership describes a government service or private business venture which is funded and operated through a partnership of government and one or more private sector companies...
funding for such schemes with the Scottish Futures Trust
Scottish Futures Trust
The Scottish Futures Trust is a government-owned company, set up by the Scottish Government in September 2008, to improve public infrastructure investment in the hope of saving £100 - £150 million each year when fully operational...
, but details for this have not been agreed. Construction industry trade newspaper Construction News reports that work on the new bridge is planned to run between 2011 and 2017. The December 2008 transport blueprint from the Scottish National Party
Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....
indicates that a new bridge will be operational by 2016. On 16 December 2010 the Scottish Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of building a new bridge over the Firth of Forth.
Bidding process
In 2009 Transport ScotlandTransport Scotland
Transport Scotland was created on 1 January 2006 as the national transport agency of Scotland. It is an Executive Agency of the Scottish Government's Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department and accountable to Scottish Ministers...
solicitied for tenders to construct the proposed bridge. Although Transport Scotland received 39 expressions of interest, concerns over the risks associated with the fixed-price contract resulted in only two consortia of large construction companies bidding. Due to the bidders' concerns that the bidding process itself would prove to be an expensive proposition, the Scottish Government allocated £10 million to defray the bidders' costs during the full bidding process.
One was Forthspan, a consortium of construction companies Morgan Sindall
Morgan Sindall
Morgan Sindall Group plc is a British based construction services business headquartered in London. It is a former constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.-History:...
, BAM Nuttall, Balfour Beatty
Balfour Beatty
Balfour Beatty plc is a British construction, engineering, military housing, rail and investment services company. It is one of the largest construction companies in the UK, and the 15th largest in the world...
, and Vinci. In 2010 Vinci withdrew from the consortium, and was replaced by Danish construction firm MT Højgaard, which was part of the consortium that built the Øresund Bridge.
The second bidding consortium was Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors (FCBC), which consists of Dragados
Grupo ACS
Actividades de Construcción y Servicios, S.A. is a Spanish company dedicated to civil and engineering construction, all types services and telecommunications. It is one of the leading construction companies in the world, with projects in many countries around the world...
, Hochtief
Hochtief
Hochtief Aktiengesellschaft is Germany's largest construction company. It is based in Essen but operates globally, ranking as the top general builder in the United States through its Turner Corporation subsidiary, and in Australia through the Leighton Group. In 2010 it employed more than 70,000...
, American Bridge
American Bridge Company
The American Bridge Company is a privately held civil engineering firm specializing in the construction and renovation of bridges and other large civil engineering projects, founded in 1900, and headquartered in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh.-Products and industry positioning:The...
, and Morrison Construction
Galliford Try
Galliford Try plc is a leading British construction business. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.-History:...
.
The two consortia submitted their bids in early 2011 and in March 2011 the Scottish Government announced that FCBC had been awarded the contract. . Preparatory works for the new bridge began in September 2011 with works beginning at the southern end of the M90 to build the northern approach roads.