Transport chief warns £2bn bill for new bridge will rise

Published on Wednesday 24 February 2010 08:45

THE cost of the new £2 billion Forth road bridge is set to rise as a result of the tender bids and inflation, the man in charge of the project has told MSPs.

John Howison, Transport Scotland's interim project director for the Forth Replacement Crossing, said he was "fairly confident" about the basic costs of the new bridge, but warned the final price depended on the bids put in by the rival contractors plus inflation while it is being built.

The admission that the costs could rise came as campaigners called on the Scottish Government to dump the project and concentrate on repairing the existing bridge instead.

The current project cost is officially put at between 1.7bn and 2.3bn. Work is due to start next year and be completed in 2016.

Government ministers have repeatedly pledged the new bridge will be built on time and within budget.

In evidence to the Scottish Parliament's finance committee, Mr Howison outlined how costs could increase.

He said: "At this stage we are fairly confident about the underlying cost levels, but the big issue will be the value the two bidders put on the works when they submit their tenders in December this year.

"We will be very much in the hands of inflation."

Edinburgh North & Leith Labour MSP Malcolm Chisholm told the committee: "People are worried about the overall costs, given the squeeze on capital budgets that is coming."

And he said some critics were suggesting the project should be delayed until it was known whether dehumidification measures on the existing bridge had worked.

Meanwhile, Lawrence Marshall, former chairman of bridge operators the Forth Estuary Transport Authority and now chairman of the ForthRight Alliance, which is campaigning against the new crossing, told the parliament's transport committee the new bridge was "simply unsustainable both financially and environmentally".