Forth Road Bridge closure cost lorry operators millions

The closure of the Forth Road Bridge for essential maintenance last December caused travel turmoil, writes Martin Reid.

The road haulage industry was hit particularly hard, with hauliers having to renegotiate rates with customers or just bear the extra cost of the detour route themselves.

Although the extra mileage brought tens of millions of pounds of unwelcome additional cost into an industry that runs on incredibly tight margins, perhaps the main problem faced was the additional time requirement for journeys and fitting this in with driverhour legislative requirements.

Although the industry adapted, responded and overcame as it always does, the memories of the bridge closure will stay for a long time and the effects on some haulage businesses will be felt for even longer.

So, as of next year, all road freight will go over the new Queensferry Crossing, leaving the existing Forth Bridge to largely public transport and cars.

What lessons have been learned from last year’s closure and what will the benefits be for road haulage in Scotland?

Well, the existing system has always created a bottleneck and congestion.

The Queensferry Crossing will include hard shoulders which will improve the traffic flow as, when dealing with inevitable breakdowns and maintenance work, this can be carried out while still allowing two lanes to remain in operation.

If an incident were to occur on the Queensferry Crossing, such as a road traffic accident, subject to the type and likely duration of the incident, the road operating company, in conjunction with the police, could agree to activate emergency connections to divert traffic via the existing Forth Road Bridge.

This would help to minimise the need for longer and less reliable and costly diversion routes.

There has also been an element of future proofing on the maintenance side which will reduce the number of times restrictions need be placed on traffic in the future.

For example, road surfacing will be easily maintained by replacing it by machine rather than the timeconsuming “hand” removal of the surfacing on the Forth Road Bridge, and the surfacing itself will be more resilient .

We have also been told the Queensferry Crossing will incorporate advanced wind shielding technology so it can remain open during much higher wind speeds than the Forth Road Bridge.

This will drastically cut the need for HGVs to use an alternative route across the Forth and reduce the risk of “blow overs”.

So, I guess for our industry, it looks like there are a number of real plus points to look forward to with the opening of the Queensferry Crossing.