Born in 1946 and brought up in Cupar, Fife, I was educated at the local school - 
Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson visited the Upper Forth Crossing today to announce the process for naming the bridge, marking another milestone towards delivering the multi-million pound project.
On attending an open day at the site, the Minister revealed Transport Scotland plans to manage a public consultation exercise to find a name for the new bridge.
Mr Stevenson said:
"I am delighted to see the progress on this project to improve east coast connections. The new crossing will open up economic opportunities, ease congestion in Kincardine and improve access to Alloa.
"By announcing the naming process today, we are able to take a real step forward in the overall delivery of this bridge. This approach enables us to engage with local communities to find a name befitting of this fantastic structure."
The public consultation exercise will involve placing adverts in local papers, in the three Council areas bordering the bridge, to invite suggestions from residents . Transport Scotland has received many suggestions in the past, including light hearted ones such as ‘Bridge at Jones Diary’ and ‘Blackadder Crossing.’
Following the newspaper notices, the public will have four weeks to make their suggestions. Transport Scotland will then make recommendations to Ministers, with the chosen name being announced in due course.
The project itself is the largest road construction scheme currently on-the-ground in Scotland and is being delivered by contractor Morgan VINCI, a joint venture between infrastructure services company Morgan Est and VINCI Construction Grands Projets. Construction involves one of the longest deck pushes of its kind in the world and started with the first launch of the bridge deck on Monday 22 January 2007, 90 metres inland from the river bank.
The twenty third launch took place on 16 November and the twenty fourth is scheduled for today (28 November), taking the bridge deck length to 972m. Each launch moves the deck out by 45 metres and takes two weeks. On completion, the bridge deck will be 1.2km long, weigh 35,000 tonnes and will sit on 25 piers which are each filled with 840 tonnes of concrete. There will be a total of 29 push launches.
The project also involves extensive improvements to the connecting trunk road network, with 6km of roads and 5 km of cycleways being constructed, as well as associated roundabouts.
Graham Porteous, Transport Scotland’s Project Director - Construction, said:
"The bridge is moving well towards its target completion date of November 2008
"With significant local interest in the bridge and its name, Transport Scotland believe that this will be a much welcomed process."
For further information see Upper Forth Crossing
Karen Adam is now the MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast
