Bridge Build Chief Backs 40mph Plan

Plans to cut the speed limit on the Forth Road Bridge while the new replacement crossing is built have been defended by the project director. David Climie of the Forth Replacement Crossing Team told MSPs that drivers are already slowing down to look at the construction of the adjacent Queensferry Crossing. The speed limit on the existing bridge is to drop from 50mph to 40mph in the spring, with average speed cameras installed along three miles of the A90 and M90 until the completion of the new bridge. Mr Climie told Holyrood's Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee: We decided that we would have it in operation right over the Forth Road Bridge as well because one thing we've specifically noted is that traffic is slowing down on the Forth Road Bridge looking at what we're doing."There's no doubt that there's been a lot of distraction there so it makes sense to have the 40mph average speed limit to control the traffic flow right through that entire area." The difference between the three miles at 50mph and 40mph is less than one minute in travel time, so we think the impact is going to be very insignificant.'' In October it was announced that the cost of the new crossing will be £50 million below the previous budget estimate of between £1.4 billion and £1.45 billion. Mr Climie told the committee the project remains on schedule and within the revised budget. He said:It's certainly on time, yes, and the budget range is £1.35 to £1.4 billion. The top end is £1.4 billion and that's as announced last October and we're certainly still very much on track for that." There's still a possibility, and I couldn't put it any stronger than that, that we may be able to get some further savings yet.'' He told the committee the Queensferry Crossing would be fully open to traffic at the end of 2016. Asked if the bridge might be completed ahead of schedule, he said:I would not claim that we can do better then we're currently predicting, there's very limited scope really at this point, but it's something we continue to monitor very closely.''