Completion of Queensferry Crossing to be delayed again

● Strong winds put back May opening ● Bridge already five months late

Bad weather has delayed the opening of the Queensferry Crossing for a second time – despite extra time being added when it was last postponed.

Economy secretary Keith Brown is expected to tell MSPS today when the £1.35 billion bridge will be ready.

He told them yesterday that completion of the Forth Road Bridge replacement had been put back from May by “adverse weather conditions”.

One construction source told The Scotsman: “This is not surprising but it is egg on the Scottish Government’s face”.

The crossing was originally due to have been finished in December, but it was postponed last June, also because of strong winds.

That was despite a year of contingency time being built into the five-year construction schedule.

Mr Brown would not be drawn on reports that contractors had asked for the completion date to be extended as late as September.

The contractors must finish the job by the end of their contract in mid-june or face penalties. When announcing the original delay last June, Mr Brown assured MSPS that the Forth Crossing Building Constructors consortium (FCBC) had “built-in allowances for future weather based on the experience to date”.

He also said FCBC “fully expects the project to be complete well within the timeframe of its contract.

“Although we will not meet the December opening target, it remains true that the project will be completed by the contractual completion date.”

Mr Brown is due to provide further details of the new delay to Holyrood’s rural economy and connectivity (REC) committee today.

He will consider overnight a report from officials following an update from FCBC to the Scottish Government’s Transport Scotland agency, which is in charge of the project.

Mr Brown told MSPS in response to a question from Mid Scotland and Fife Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser: “Following my recent appearance at the REC committee on 8 March, I asked FCBC, the contractor, to carry out a thorough review of their programme through to project completion.

“That work has indicated that adverse weather conditions, particularly wind, has had an impact on the remov-

0 Cranes have taken four times as long as scheduled to be dismantled al of the construction cranes and, therefore, on the estimated completion date.”

Mr Brown said it had taken 65 days to take down cranes that would normally take 15 days, because of high winds.

Mr Fraser later tweeted: “New Queensferry Crossing was promised by FM [First Minister] for end 2016. Then end May 2017. Now delayed again. Very disappointing for constituents.”