£1bn vision for new bridge over Forth

A £1 BILLION vision of a new crossing over the Firth of Forth was unveiled today.

The new bridge would provide dual carriageways for traffic and could also carry trams or trains.

The project is seen as essential to the future of transport links between the Lothians and Fife.

The preferred option is for a new suspension bridge to be created to the west of the existing Forth Road Bridge.

The new crossing would run from Linn Mill and South Queensferry over Beamer Rock to the Cult Ness headland.

It would be about 2.2km long and 184 metres high, with towers constructed from reinforced concrete.

Consultants FaberMaunsell were last year commissioned to resurrect a bridge scheme first drawn up in the 1990s.

At a meeting of the Forth Estuary Transport Authority, the consultants today put forward the results of an updated feasibility study.

They said constructing the bridge would take almost ten years.

A version carrying only cars and other road traffic would cost an estimated 300m.

The addition of a light rail link over the bridge would take the cost to 360m while the option of putting a tramline under the bridge would bring the total to 400m.

Consultants also looked at the possibility of running a heavy rail link under the dual carriageway. They concluded such a scheme was possible but would cost approximately 580m.

FaberMaunsell said that the associated costs of approach roads and other construction work around the entrances to the proposed bridge would total an additional 500m.

FETA chief executive Douglas Sinclair claimed a new crossing was vital to Scotland’s economic health. "We made it clear from the start that there would be a priority to public transport on a new bridge," he said.

"The consultants have taken this into account in re-opening their earlier project designs.

"A new crossing is of key strategic significance to the whole of the country, not just Fife and the east of Scotland. It is vital to the nation’s economic health.

"For this reason we can’t procrastinate, especially when you bear in mind that it will take ten years to deliver a new crossing."

The existing Forth Road Bridge is said to be carrying more than twice its anticipated load every day, with more than 24 million people crossing the bridge last year.

This summer weekend traffic on the ageing bridge has faced severe delays because of vital resurfacing work to the 40-year-old structure.

Last year, the number of vehicles crossing the bridge every weekday rose by 2.5 per cent to more than 69,000.

According to the official figures from FETA, an average of 1700 more trips were made last year across the bridge every weekday compared with 2002.

Tory proposals for a 150m second Forth Road Bridge built by the private sector were thrown out after an award-winning Evening News campaign more than a decade ago.

Environmentalists, politicians and campaigners argued a new bridge would simply mean more traffic. And Labour’s Malcolm Chisholm killed off the last vestiges of the plan when he became Scotland’s transport minister after the 1997 general election.

The new bridge is likely to be funded through a Private Finance Initiative, with tolls being used to recoup the costs.