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To name or not to name the Forth Replacement Crossing?

April 15, 2011 in Forth Replacement Crossing, Uncategorized | No comments

One of the stories that’s been doing the rounds over the last few months, is the dual debate as to whether to name the new Forth bridge and if it is to be named something other than the Forth Replacement Crossing, what the name should be.

It all started back in early January when this blog reported on a motion tabled by John Park MSP to allow the public to name the bridge when it was completed. A raft of news reports and discussions followed suggesting names such as: “The Kingdom bridge”, the “Cromwell bridge”, “Jeff” (for Jeff bridges!) or simply the “New Forth bridge” or for those who object to the cost of it, the “Forth toll bridge”.

Shortly thereafter, transport minister Keith Brown was reported to snub the idea of a competition open to the public to name the bridge. He was quoted as saying: “The project has been named Forth Replacement Crossing since 2006, when the Forth Replacement Crossing Study was carried out to investigate the various crossing options available to replace the existing Forth Road Bridge.”. This was followed by press outrage, and then a back-down with Transport Scotland moving to clarify that the project will continue to be referred to as the Forth Replacement Crossing, but yes, there would probably be a name for the bridge upon completion. Clear as mud to me.

One of the most interesting videos I came across in the last month, was an hour episode on the BBC Democracy Live website that detailed an exchange between the Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Committee and three senior managers at Transport Scotland: David Climie, Lawrence Shackman and Stewart Turner. The initial questions around the 7min mark were most interesting, quizzing David Climie on the impact of political changes (presumably delays) to the time-tabling of the project after an election. There was also quite a lot of criticism on the public transport strategy (or lack thereof) and Transport Scotlands engagement with communities and in particular their work with Newton Community Council later on in the video.

In other news, the current Forth bridge published traffic figures in a report. Related to this, Transport Scotland also have a planning application in for a purpose built facility

HGV’s could be banned on the current Forth bridge before the new bridge is even opened.

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Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors chosen as preferred bidder for £1.5bil replacement crossing

March 21, 2011 in Forth Replacement Crossing, Uncategorized | No comments

The Scottish government today announced the successful tender to build the Forth Replacement Crossing. The estimated £2.3bil build cost that was originally proposed, has been revised by the successful consortium – Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors – to be closer to £1.5bil. The rival bid, by Forthspan, while accepted as valid and of a high standard was ultimately rejected. The SNP administration is presenting this as a significant cost saving measure ahead of the elections on the 5th of May.

Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors made up of engineering and construction firms Hochtief, Morrison Construction, American Bridge and Dragados (part of ACS) will formally be awarded the contract in April. Construction is due to star in the early summer with completion still estimated for 2016.

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website downtime

July 23, 2010 in Uncategorized | No comments

Apologies for the downtime over the last week. Our host has performed a serious hardware upgrade and it took a considerable amount of time to move the site across. Hopefully this will increase the speed of the site for everyone. It’s almost like road works on the Forth Road bridge!

Geological society hosts lecture by Forth Replacement Crossing Team

January 12, 2010 in Uncategorized | No comments

The Engineering Group of the Geological society is hosting a joint meeting with the British Geotechnical Association (BGA) at which the key people at Transport Scotland and Jacobs Arup. The meeting, on the 16th of February at 5.30, will be hosted at the Geological Society’s headquarters at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London. This seminar style meeting includes details of the marine investigation by Alistair Chisholm of Transport Scotland. From Jacobs Arup, Paul Mellon will cover the background to the groundwork investigation, while Stewart Drennan will describe the some of the current investigations and complications in more detail.

Full details can be found on their press release.

Ferrari designer to work on Forth Replacement Crossing windshielding

January 10, 2010 in Uncategorized | No comments

This is a great little story by The Scotsman that the team (from the University of Politecnico di Milano that was used to streamline the Ferrari racing car is looking into the aerodynamic design of the new Forth Road Bridge.

Apparently:

Using complex wind tunnel tests, the Italian team are studying the way air moves around a series of scale models of the proposed bridge, as they try to construct a barrier that protects high-sided vehicles while offering a reasonable view from the bridge for drivers.

In fairness, the old bridge did have a poor record of being shut to high sided vehicles whenever there were reasonably strong winds – although I doubt whether extensive wind tunnel tests are really required to figure out whether the new design leaves vehicles exposed to such high winds. Of course, the positive to take is that at least someone is thinking about these kinds of things this time around!