Queensferry Crossing "nearing completion and on schedule to open May next year"
Construction work on the new £1.3 billion Queensferry Crossing is now 94% complete, project bosses have said.
Construction work on the new £1.3 billion Queensferry Crossing is now 94% complete, project bosses have said.
Only two segments of the deck are still to be lifted into place to complete the link across the Forth between the Lothians and Fife.
The project will then move onto a new phase of finishing works, with the bridge on schedule to open in May 2017.
Transport Scotland has released a video showing highlights from the past 12 months of the project.
Economy Secretary Keith Brown said: “The Queensferry Crossing is now nearing completion and is on schedule to open in May next year.
“On the bridge there is continuous deck from the north viaduct in Fife to just a few metres short of the south viaduct in the Lothians. At this stage there are only two more deck segments to lift of the 122 total - with these due to be in place in early 2017.
“When work starts back at the beginning of January the initial focus will be on completing the final few concrete pours to complete the deck of the south viaduct.
“Then focus will shift onto a new phase of finishing works - water proofing, road surfacing and the final fit out of all the mechanical and electrical systems on what will be a truly state-of-the-art bridge.
“The challenge the project faces with the weather have been well documented but it is to the enormous credit of the skilled and dedicated team that the project remains on schedule to open within the original contractual timeframe and significantly under budget.
“And, of course, no-one ever said building the tallest bridge in Britain in such a challenging environment was going to be easy.”
Mr Brown said that the bridge would bring significant improvements to Scotland's trunk road network once it was open.
The project would bring a 14 mile motorway connection between the outskirts of Edinburgh and Dunfermline, with much improved junctions and smart technology to vary speed limits to ease periods of congestion, he said.
When the Queensferry Crossing opens the Forth Road Bridge will be retained as a dedicated public transport corridor and will also provide a largely traffic-free environment for cyclists and walkers across the Forth.
Once it is complete, the 1.7-mile (2.7km) structure will be the longest three-tower, cable-stayed bridge in the world and also by far the largest to feature cables which cross mid-span, according to the Queensferry Crossing project website.