Forth Crossing Bridge Case Study
The Problem
As the main route between Edinburgh and Fife and one of the most famous crossings in the UK, the Forth Road bridge carries a huge amount of traffic, up to 24 million vehicles a year.
In a huge infrastructure project titled the ‘Forth Replacement Crossing scheme‘, the existing Forth Road Bridge, built in 1964, was to be joined by the Queensferry Crossing – a new bridge subject to motorway regulations. This major project would see the 13.7 miles worth of works carried out, including major motorway upgrades to the north and south of the bridge and the introduction of variable mandatory speed limits to smooth traffic congestion via an Intelligent Transport System, the first ever introduced in Scotland.
The bridge itself stands at a record-breaking 1.7 miles long, the longest three-tower cable-stayed bridge in the world, and also by far the largest to feature cables which cross mid-span.
The AB2K Solution
With such a wide variety of work to be done, it is unsurprising that the Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors (FCBC) Joint Venture teams needed the support of a reliable plant supplier to provide a range of plant solutions.
The AB2K team were delighted to be able to supply earthworks machines and operators to deliver the new approach roads and motorway extensions, and specialist teams to deliver the construction of the brand-new bridge abutments.
A huge array of plant worked round the clock on this huge project including all sizes of excavators, bulldozers, dump trucks, crushing plant, wheeled shovels, mobile cranes, test weights, cradles, testing services and or course a busy team of highly trained operators.
The Result
Not only is the Queensferry Bridge the biggest of its kind in the world, with over 10 million man hours spent on the project (across all organisations!) the project also takes the crown for the largest infrastructure project that Scotland has seen for a generation - and AB2K is delighted to have played a role in making that happen.
Morrison Construction Project Director Michael Martin, part of the Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors (FCBC) Project team said on completion of the project that the new crossing was ‘one of the world’s great bridges’ – and we agree!
