Minister visits Upper Forth Crossing for final 'deck push'

Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson visited the multi-million pound Upper Forth Crossing today to witness it land on the south bank following its 13 month journey across the river.

The final ‘deck push’ marks the first time the bridge has spanned the Forth and is a significant milestone towards delivering this vital project.

The Transport Scotland project involves one of the longest deck pushes of its kind in the world and started over a year ago with the first launch of the bridge deck on Monday 22 January 2007, 90 metres inland from the river bank.

Speaking at the bridge, Transport Minister, Stewart Stevenson said:

"I am delighted that the final piece of the jigsaw is clicking into place on this fantastic new crossing. This bridge will bring economic benefits to communities across Fife and Central Scotland, opening up access, whilst easing congestion, and improving safety.

"Today is a key milestone in this project - a project which breaks new ground in worldwide engineering. I am sure people living near the bridge will be pleased to see the real progress which has been made."

John Osborne, project director for contractor Morgan VINCI, said:

"This final launch represents a major milestone for the project. We launched the first bridge span on 22 January last year and over the past 13 months have incrementally launched the remaining 25 spans; all of this achieved by a consistent high level of performance throughout from the whole site team.

"The new 26-span bridge, which weighs over 32,000 tonnes and is 1.2 kilometres in length, is the second longest incrementally launched concrete bridge in the world and is the fourth incrementally launched bridge to be constructed by the joint venture in the UK."

Overseen by Transport Scotland, the project is the largest road construction scheme currently on-the-ground in Scotland and is being constructed by contractor Morgan VINCI, a joint venture between infrastructure services company Morgan Est and VINCI Construction Grands Projets.

Each launch moved the deck out by 45 metres and achieved a construction cycle time as low as 8 days. On full completion, the bridge deck will be 1.2km long, weigh 32,000 tonnes and will sit on 25 piers which are each filled with 840 tonnes of concrete.

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.

For further information see Upper Forth Crossing