Forth Road Bridge
Forth Road Bridge Drochaid Fhorthe | |||||||||
Location Map ( geo) | |||||||||
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From: | Queensferry | ||||||||
To: | North Queensferry | ||||||||
County | |||||||||
West Lothian • Fife | |||||||||
Highway Authority | |||||||||
Transport Scotland | |||||||||
Opening Date | |||||||||
1964 | |||||||||
Cost | |||||||||
£20m | |||||||||
Toll | |||||||||
Free. Toll abolished 2008 | |||||||||
Additional Information | |||||||||
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On road(s) | |||||||||
A9000 | |||||||||
The Forth Road Bridge was the second crossing of the Firth of Forth (after the "Forth Bridge", the iconic railway bridge). The suspension bridge opened in 1964 and was the A90 until the Queensferry Crossing opened in 2017. It is currently the A9000 and has been retained for use by buses, taxis, cyclists and pedestrians.
Opening
It was opened by H.M. Queen Elizabeth on 4 September 1964 and was a toll bridge until this was abolished by the Scottish Executive in 2008. It was a vitally important link between Edinburgh and Fife for both commercial and commuter traffic. The footpaths and cycle tracks were completed in January 1965.
History
Plans for a crossing had been around since the 1920s. J Inglis Ker had advanced a proposal in 1924 for a road bridge between North and South Queensferry with an estimated cost of £3.5m. Proponents pointed to projects such as the 1595 feet (486 m) Brooklyn Bridge in the USA, and noted the benefits for Scottish steel and other industries.
The Joint Committee of Inquiry on the Forth River Crossings reported in 1933 after 3 years of deliberation, recommending either a new bridge or substantial improvements to the ferry. It suggested a bridge at a location similar to the current one, from either Port Edgar or South Queensferry to North Queensferry. It estimated a cost of £6m, of which £4m would be paid for by the reduction in unemployment benefits to workers contracted on the bridge. A toll of 1 shilling was suggested, with an expected 6000-8000 vehicles per day.
In 1935 a civil engineer called Leitch suggested a suspension bridge with two 2400 ft spans centred on Inchgarvie, just to the east of the rail bridge. In 1936 the Transport Ministry rejected proposals for a bridge at Queensferry; the Scotsman newspaper included detailed discussions, reporting an expected traffic flows of 2000 vehicles a day and a planned toll of 3 shillings per crossing. Meanwhile, the Kincardine Bridge was built further upriver, opening in 1936.
The inauguration ceremony for the start of construction was on 21 November 1958. It was then expected to take 5 years to build with an estimated cost of £16 million.
The Figures
- Span - 3,300 feet, the longest span in Europe when opened
- Total length - 1.5 miles
- Towers - the two main towers are about 500 feet high
- Cable length - each cable is 7000 feet long
- Cable weight - 8,000 tons
- Wires - 11,618 parallel wires and enough to go round the world 1.25 times
- Cost - £20 million
- Approach Roads - 6.44 miles from North and 4.87 miles from South
Replacement
Following concerns about the bridge's longevity and the need for increasingly disruptive maintenance the Forth Replacement Crossing project built a replacement bridge along with new approach roads, which opened in 2017.
Routes
Despite having been replaced by the Queensferry Crossing for the majority of traffic, the Forth Road Bridge remains the Primary Destination at present.
Route | To | Notes |
Dunfermline, Perth | ||
Glasgow, Stirling, Edinburgh, Airport | Spur to M9 J1a. Replaced the highly congested A8000. | |
Dunfermline (A823) | ||
Edinburgh | ||
Kirkcaldy, Tay Bridge, Dundee | ||
Rosyth | Ferry terminal to Zeebrugge | |
M90(N), Inverkeithing, Rosyth | Restricted traffic | |
M90(S), South Queensferry, Edinburgh | Restricted Traffic | |
Queensferry, Bo'Ness | ||
Inverkeithing | ||
Glasgow, Airport | Spur to M9 J1a. Replaced the highly congested A8000. | |
Glasgow (M8), (M9), Airport |
Links
Legislation
Forth Road Bridge | ||||||||
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