Balfour Beatty bridges £134m gap

Published on Monday 18 February 2008 19:38

BALFOUR Beatty is set to earn around £134 million by the time it finishes its work painting and restoring the Forth Bridge – the task it has always been thought would never end.

The London-based construction group has been the lead contractor on the project since 2002, after Aberdeen-based Rigblast was forced off the job amid serious delays.

After an initial six-year contract worth around 10m a year, Network Rail, the operator of Britain's railway infrastructure, yesterday announced a new four-year, 74m deal for Balfour Beatty, as it strives to complete the project by 2012.

Removing layers of paint applied over 120 years since the bridge was built, the project is an attempt to restore the Forth Bridge to its original glory.

Marshall Scott, managing director of Balfour Beatty's regional civil engineering division, said: "We now look forward to taking this project to completion in 2012, and, with the removal of the scaffolding, the restoration of this remarkable bridge will return it to near pristine condition."

Network Rail confirmed yesterday that it is increasing its annual spend on the project by more than 40 per cent to 18.5m in an attempt to complete the project in four years' time. Its chief executive, Iain Coucher, unveiled the new programme "with the aim of generating long-term financial savings".

Coucher, attending a rail conference in Edinburgh yesterday, said: "The Forth Bridge is a working monument to the genius of British railway engineering. The work will restore the bridge to its original condition and preserve the steelwork for decades."

He said: "The restoration work has been ongoing since 2002 but, due to years of under-investment during the 70s and 80s, the scale of the job was initially unclear. Only now are we in the position to name a completion date of 2012."

Network Rail and Balfour Beatty said the project would "mark the end of a modern myth".

So much time has been spent painting the structure, the saying "like painting the Forth Bridge" has become synonymous with any task which takes so long that, by the time it is completed, it is time to start again.

Around 200 workers are currently involved in the project, scraping layers of paint built up over more than a century since the bridge was built, replacing it with a specialist glass flake paint.

Similar to paint used in the offshore oil industry, the new coating is designed to last at least 20 years but Network Rail said it hopes it will last 30 years.

Network Rail said there would be no disruption to passenger or freight services during the rest of the project.