The Forth Crossings

With the construction of the new Queensferry Crossing due to be completed in 2016, we thought it would be a good time to take a look at the history of the Forth crossings – and look at how things are coming along for the newest stage in that history.

There was great news at the beginning of October – the cost of building the crossing is going to be a hefty £50m lower than previously thought. How often does that happen? The revised budget has been reduced to a top limit of £1.4bn from the previous £1.45bn, according to Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on her recent site visit. Ms Sturgeon said that the progress made since construction started in June 2011 meat that there would be £195m worth of savings, and she praised the “sound management and delivery of the scheme.”

The crossing will be the centre piece of a major upgrade to the cross-Forth transport corridor. It will be 1.7 miles across, making it the longest three-tower, cable-stayed bridge in the world. The current Forth Bridge celebrated its 50th were seen off in style with a ‘river of fire’ made up of 2,014 torchbearers and a stunning firework display. The Forth Bridges Festival was a ten-day festival which also commemorated three centuries of world-class bridge engineering on the Forth.

History of the Bridge

The Firth of Forth was first bridged in 1890, but research didn’t begin on a road bridge until 1929. At the time, a tunnel was mooted as an option too. It wasn’t until 1958 that the green light was given for the Forth Bridge as we know it now, and construction started in 1960. People flocked to see the bridge while it was under construction in the early sixties. It was opened by HRH Queen Elizabeth on 4th September 1964 to a 21 gun salute, and 16,000 people attended the opening ceremony (not including all the members of the public who turned out.)

It was the fourth longest suspension bridge for 78 days, until the opening of New York’s Verrazano Narrows Bridge on 21 November knocked it back down a place. During the 1990s repairs were needed – due to the increasing volume and weight of traffic over the bridge, the structure had to be strengthened, and there were problems with corrosion and repairs needed to the cables.

In March 2001 the Forth Road Bridge was designated a Category A listed structure.Plans for a new crossing were made public in 2007, and construction started on the new crossing in 2011.