Opening day tailbacks on crossing

Visitors mingle with commuters to bring rush-hour misery to scotland’s newest bridge

Commuters and the clamour to experience the Queensferry Crossing on its opening day led to motoring misery for many.

There was jubilation as the first vehicles went on to the £1.35 billion bridge early yesterday morning.

Cabinet Secretary for the Economy Keith Brown was one of the first to make the trip.

“It’s fantastic,” he said. “It’s a very smooth passage right across the Queensferry Crossing.”

But come morning rush hour – which started earlier than usual – there were the inevitable grumbles from drivers caught up in long tailbacks in both directions.

On the north side it was backing up to the M90 Halbeath junction and it was taking motorists, sitting in nose-to-tail traffic, more than an hour to clear the crossing.

The frustration was exacerbated by bridge tourists.

Numbers were swelled by thousands of people simply wanting to be part of history and take a ride across Scotland’s newest bridge.

The bridge experienced its first breakdown when a southbound lorry stopped at 7am.

Difficulties continued as traffic waited for up to 75 minutes on either side of the bridge in the afternoon rush hour.

However, Stein Connelly of Transport Scotland said its design had helped keep traffic moving.

“The lorry moved into the hard shoulder,” he said.

“One of the benefits you get from the Queensferry Crossing is that you have a hard shoulder.

“If it was the Forth Road Bridge you’d be down to one lane and it would cause severe disruption.”

With many drivers using social media to criticise the “chaos”, Mr Connelly thanked drivers for their patience.

“This morning a lot of drivers were just driving across to view and experience the new iconic bridge.

“That, mixed in with the usual commuter traffic, is causing long delays.”

The National Traffic Control Centre had a busy day and he encouraged people to think about the latest travel situation and leave plenty of extra time.

Mr Brown said the public had been very engaged with the project and had wanted to “be a part of this historic day”, which led to large volumes of traffic.