Forth replacement crossing news roundup for July

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.