Now SNP admits new Forth bridge is 6 MONTHS late
THE SNP was last night accused of keeping voters in the dark over a delay to the opening of the new Forth crossing.
Economy Secretary Keith Brown was forced to admit the biggest infrastructure project in Scottish history is almost six months behind schedule.
‘Adverse weather conditions’ in April and May have been blamed – yet that only cost the contractor 25 ‘lost days’.
Transport Scotland said the project was on track as recently as March, causing confusion at Holyrood as to how 25 lost days can cause a five-and-a-half month delay.
Tory MSP Murdo Fraser demanded to know if contractors were ‘asked to sign confidentiality agreements not to disclose this information until after the Scottish parliament election on May 5’– a suggestion Mr Brown denied.
The delay is an embarrassment for the SNP. Its election manifesto, unveiled in April, said: ‘The £1.4billion Queensferry Crossing is on time and on budget.’ Nicola Sturgeon and other ministers have repeatedly boasted about their successful ‘stewardship’ of the project.
Lib Dem MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton said: ‘Much about this statement suggests a project in abject distress. How on earth does 25 days lost to weather in April and May equate to a 180-day delay in opening the bridge? Does he take us for fools?
‘Does he now expect parliament to believe the first ministers learned of this was just, conveniently, days after the Scottish election?’
Engineers had hoped to complete the bridge by December 2016 but that timescale has now slipped.
In a statement to parliament, Mr Brown said contractor Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors (FCBC) submitted an update of the impact of the weather last week, adding: ‘Since deck-lifting operations com-
‘A project in abject distress’
menced in September 2015, the downtime due to adverse weather, specifically wind, has been 40 per cent compared to the 25 per cent anticipated by the contractor.
‘Until May, FCBC believed they could mitigate these weather effects. However, the impact of the weather in April and May was particularly severe, with 13 days and 12 days lost respectively.
‘As a result, FCBC have advised ministers that due to the combined effects of the time lost in these two months they can no longer deliver the December 2016 target opening date. It is important to remind parliament the contractual completion date for the bridge is actually June 2017. December 2016 was a target date that would have seen the bridge open six months ahead of contract.
‘The Queensferry Crossing is now expected to be open by mid-May 2017, prior to the contractual completion date of mid-June 2017. There will be no additional cost to taxpayers. Our previous projection of a £245million saving remains.’
Mr Fraser asked: ‘Is it true that contractors working on this new bridge were aware of the delay some weeks ago and were asked to sign confidentiality agreements not to disclose this information until after the Scottish parliament election on May 5?’
Mr Brown replied: ‘I have no knowledge of, and certainly the Scottish Government has never entered into, any confidentially agreements with the contractor saying that they cannot speak about this.’
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