Forth Bridge cost just a fraction of Gateway project
ASCOTTISH MP has said the Queensferry Crossing being built across the Firth Of Forth is not only bigger than the Mersey Gateway bridge but also being built quicker and ‘at a fraction of the cost’.
Keith Brown, Scottish National Party (SNP), said he was ‘very pleased with the progress’ on the project, which will convey the M90 motorway over the river near Edinburgh.
The bridge is to due to cost £1.35bn of investment by the Scottish Government and is the UK’s tallest bridge.
Transport Scotland said the crossing will be 2.7 km long including the approach viaducts.
By comparison, the Mersey Gateway will be 2.1km with a river span of 1km. In addition the total length of the Forth replacement scheme is 13.7 miles long, more than double the Mersey Gateway’s 5.9-mile link road. Mr Brown, speaking to the Scottish Parliament, said that the Queensferry crossing, which had been due to open in August could open as early as mid-July.
The bridge will feature variable mandatory speed limits in the motorway hard shoulder and to ease ● congestion via an intelligent transport system, which the project backers said will also control dedicated bus lanes in the motorway hard shoulders, which it added would be ‘another first in Scotland’.
And similar to the way in which the Silver Jubilee Bridge between Runcorn and Widnes will be converted to a single-lane each way road bridge with cycling and pedestrian lanes, the existing Forth Road Bridge will be switched to use for public transport, cycling and walking.
Halton’s Mersey Gateway is costing just over £600m to build but will cost £1.86bn for the total 30-year repayment and maintenance term before it comes into public ownership.
The Queensferry crossing will be just more than two thirds the cost of the Halton bridge.
The Mersey Gateway project has said it is ‘not appropriate’ to compare the two schemes because they are ‘vastly different’.
Mr Brown told Holyrood: “It is also worth comparing the Queensferry crossing with other projects.
“For example, it is coming in at a fraction of the cost of the Runcorn bridge although it is a bigger bridge and is being deliv- ered more quickly.
“I am very pleased about the progress that has been made on the bridge.”
A Mersey Gateway scheme spokeswoman said: “The two schemes are vastly different in terms of the financing, construction and delivery and therefore it is not appropriate to compare them on this basis and for the Mersey Gateway project to comment”