South Queensferry

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South Queensferry to have visitors centre following completion of the new Forth Road bridge

January 5, 2011 in Forth Replacement Crossing, new forth road bridge, South Queensferry | No comments

South Queensferry is to be the location of a new visitors centre, providing information to its thousands of annual visitors, reports the Scotsman. The building will serve as an information centre during the construction of the replacement Forth crossing, and will thereafter become a visitors centre for all three bridges. The news has been welcomed by Queensferry & District Community council. No news of the location of the centre has so far been reported.

There has also been a motion tabled by Labour MSP John Park to allow the public to vote on names for the bridge. His suggestions have so far included: Ark Royal Bridge, named after the recently retired Navy flagship, or other well known Fife figures Andrew Carnegie or Adam Smith. Have your own suggestions? Please post them here.

Archaeological excavations to begin at site of Forth replacement crossing

August 16, 2010 in Forth Replacement Crossing, Forth Road Bridge, new forth road bridge, Scottish Parliament, South Queensferry | No comments

BBC News recently ran a story announcing that archaeological were to begin this month (August, 2010) following the award of a contract to Edinburgh based company Headland Archaeology. According to the report, initial studies will focus on the area of St.Margaret’s Hope and the Echline Fields, sites identified by Transport Scotland and Historic Scotland as being of interest. Fife newspaper The Courier added that investigation will involve “geophysical survey, trial trenches and hand excavation”.

The Forthspan bid was recently rocked by news that the worlds largest bridge builder, Vinci Construction has pulled out of the bid. It was promptly replaced by MT Hojgaard who were involved in the building of the Oresund bridge between Sweden and Denmark. As reported by The Scotsman, there continue to be concerns about the ability of both Forthspan and it’s rival the Forth Crossing Constructors Group to last right through the tendering process and to provide a competitive bid.

The Forthspan collaboration includes major constructors Balfour Beatty, Morgan EST and BAM Nuttall and now joined by MT Hojgaard who have replaced Vinci, previously the leading organisation. Opposing them is the Forth Crossing Constructors Group, a consortium consisting of Morrison Construction, Hochtief, American Bridge and ACS.

I don’t come across many of these, but I did find an objection raised by Cala Homes against the proposed work on the M9 junction to facilitate the forth replacement crossing access around Winchburgh. Interestingly, it looks like Transport Scotland proposes to lease the land from Cala during the course of the work, rather than using it’s compulsory purchase powers. Have any other formal objections in writing? Let me know.

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Forth replacement crossing news roundup for July

July 25, 2010 in Forth Replacement Crossing, Forth Road Bridge, new forth road bridge, Scottish Parliament, South Queensferry | No comments

Cancelling the replacement forth crossing would cost over £22million according to the Scottish executive., Responding to a question raised in the Scottish Parliament on the 14th of July, Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson gave this total explaining that wind down and staff redeployment costs would be in addition to this figure and could not at present be estimated.

Work has also begun to move a sewerage pipe near Port Edgar, some 200metres to the sast as part of preparation for construction to commence on the new Forth bridge. Scottish Water has been instructed by Transport Scotland to start this work, who are outsourcing it to a local firm AMC Subsea based in Leith, Edinburgh. By moving the pipe now, it will not delay construction on the bridge when this is due to start, estimated next year.

An economic feasibility study has been completed on the replacement forth bridge, by S.C. Wamuziri of Napier University and A.G.F. Clearie of engineering firm Jacobs (the current project managers). It is available to purchase from it’s publishers ‘Emerald’. If anyone has a copy, I would be interested in reading it.

I’ve recently become aware of the blog called A place to stand written by a political nay-sayer, blogging on amongst other things the replacement Forth Road bridge. While his posts (as blogs inevitably are) are all personal opinion, they do make an interesting read as a counter to the usual political dogma we have thrown at us. Along similiar lines, the Caledonian Mercury online paper, recently posted an opinion piece by Lawrence Marshall, chairman of the Forthright Alliance re-affirming his opinion on why we do not need a replacement crossing, but should repair the existing bridge instead.

And finally, chances are you shouldn’t use facebook at work. You probably do, but really you shouldn’t. Well, our civil servants have found a good way around all this. With the current social media crazy, why not join facebook under a work account, and then it must be OK. I present to you, the Forth Road Bridge facebook account run by our government funded friends at FETA.

Forth Road Bridge public meetings for residents

March 13, 2010 in Forth Road Bridge, South Queensferry | No comments

FETA, the Forth Road Bridge authority recently distributed flyers to local residents advising them of two upcoming public meetings designed to discuss the work required to replace the bearings on the bridge’s approach viaducts; a contract that was recently awarded to Balfour Beatty. that was announced at the end of February.

On Monday the 15th of March, the first meeting will be held at the Forth Road Bridge Administration office in South Queensferry and the following evening on the 16th of March it will be held in the Queensferry Hotel in North Queensferry. Both meetings are open to all and scheduled to start at 7p.m. with refreshments provided.

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News round-up: Dedicated bus route to be slower and Replacement bridge banks

March 4, 2010 in Forth Replacement Crossing, South Queensferry | No comments

The Queensferry and District Community Council are reported to have stated that the proposed use of the existing Forth Road Bridge as a dedicated public transport corridor would actually make journey times between Edinburgh and Fife slower. This is because the new routes would have a number of traffic light controlled junctions (up to 6) that would delay buses from re-joining the main route back into Edinburgh or Fife. The powers that be, however suggest that with correct prioritising of signals for public transport, then this isn’t really an issue. It does seem slightly odd though, that what currently is a road straight through onto the bridge at either end cannot continued to be used by buses with slipways directly onto the M90 in the North and the A90 in the South.

In addition to the story above, The Scotsman has also recently run a story that a National infrastructure bank is needed to raise and control finances on the Forth Replacement Crossing project.

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Forth Crossing consultation as raised by the Scottish Parliament

February 11, 2010 in Forth Replacement Crossing, Scottish Parliament, South Queensferry | No comments

On the 29th of January, during a parliamentary question and answer session, George Foulkes asked how much consultation has occurred between the Forth Replacement Crossing team (i.e. Transport Scotland) and the local communities. The following table was presented as a record of meetings:

Event Topic/Purpose Date
Queensferry & District CC Presentation on the Forth Replacement Crossing Study September 2007
Introductory briefing April 2008
Project update September 2008
Managed Crossing Strategy briefing January 2009
Briefing on amendments to roads and junctions (with Queensferry Business Association) March 2009
Landscaping and mitigation briefing (with Queensferry Business Association) June 2009
Project update – noise, traffic, Ferrymuir amendments and forthcoming activity November 2009
Port Edgar Marina Introductory briefing June 2008
Port Edgar Yacht Club Project update February 2009
Queensferry Ambition Introductory briefing April 2008
Queensferry Business Association Presentation on the Forth Replacement Crossing Study September 2007
Introductory briefing April 2008
Project update September 2008
Managed Crossing Strategy briefing January 2009
Briefing on amendments to roads and junctions (with QDCC) March 2009
Landscaping and mitigation briefing (with QDCC) June 2009
Queensferry Vision Introductory briefing April 2008
Project update September 2008
Clufflats Residents Representatives Project update September 2008
Managed Crossing Strategy briefing January 2009
Clufflats Residents Landscaping, mitigation and construction briefings June 2009
Project update November 2009
Dundas Home Farm Residents Managed Crossing Strategy briefing April 2009
Project update – landscaping and mitigation July 2009
Project update – landscaping and mitigation October 2009
Echline Corner Consultative Alliance Project update October 2009
Project update November 2009
Echline Residents Landscaping, mitigation and construction briefings June 2009
Project update October 2009
Inchgarvie Residents Landscaping, mitigation and construction briefing June 2009
Project update December 2009
Linn Mill Residents Association Introductory briefing April 2008
Project update June 2008
Project update September 2008
Managed Crossing Strategy briefing January 2009
Landscaping and mitigation briefing July 2009
Society Road Residents Landscaping, mitigation and construction briefing June 2009
Project update November 2009
Springfield Residents Landscaping, mitigation and construction briefing June 2009
Project update November 2009
Scoutstoun Park Residents Association Project update November 2009

Source: Scottish Parliament, 2009.

A follow up question asked about the status of listed buildings in the area and whether any of those with listed status would have that status changed. While the answer was that no listed buildings would have that status changed, a fair number of buildings would be impacted upon by the replacement Forth bridge. These include:
- St. Margaret’s Hope
- Ferry Craig
- Dalmeny Church
- Inchgarvie House

St. Margaret’s Hope arch will need to be dismantled and relocated.

The full transcript can be seen on the website

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South Queensferry news roundup

January 17, 2010 in Bo'ness Journal, Forth Replacement Crossing, Queensferry Gazette, South Queensferry | No comments

Two stories by the news outlets both local and national. First up, is the STV report that West Lothian Council has formally objected to the crossing. They quote the Executive Councillor for Transport as saying: “The council executive approved the submission of an objection to the Forth Crossing Parliamentary Bill to protect the community of Newton against the predicted increase of traffic resulting from the construction of the planned bridge and its surrounding road infrastructure”. The local Bo’Ness paper also runs this report.

Certainly this has been one of the pressing concerns regarding the new Forth crossing. The lack of a direct link to the M9, will almost certainly mean people will take the shortcut across country to junction 2 of the M9 at Old Philpstoun. Route to M9 from replacement forth crossing The current proposed route takes in the M9 spur/old A8000 route, but this is a long circular way round. Why can’t a route be drawn directly South to link with the M9 with a new junction to the North-East of Winchburgh?

The local papers have also recently reported on the announcement of further commercial and residential development at Ferrymuir. The Forth bridges business park developments was previously earmarked as commercial development only, but the planning permission has been changed to also allow residential development. This would also include a sports complex, a care home and a community facility together with new homes and offices.

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