Bridges - Bah - Humbug!

It's been windy here in Edinburgh this last few days, as well as in the rest of Scotland.

It's not an uncommon happening. It's often windy in this Northern Kingdom.

As I mentioned in yesterday's Blog, the Forth Road Bridge was open only to cars on Friday evening. It's been so windy today that the FRB has been closed to most traffic for much of today also.

I can't figure out why the Scottish Government decided in the Summer to choose a new bridge across the Forth instead of a tunnel. I can only attribute it to a case of communal forgetfulness about the nature of Scottish Weather.

I don't know if FETA keep records of the number of hours the FRB is not fully open, or speed is restricted, due to strong winds, fog, or ice. But it must be several days a year.

In fact, a news report on the FETA web site records that two lorries overturned on the bridge in strong winds during the first three months of this year. Further, the bridge was closed to 'wind-susceptible vehicles' for 184 hours during the same three months. That's a total of eight 24-hour periods in only three months!

A tunnel under the Forth would not be subject to any restrictions due to weather conditions such as these. When the costs of the New Bridge were being compared with the costs of a New Tunnel did anyone calcultae the disruptive cost to the nation of more than a week's worth of unplanned closures due to weather every Winter? I doubt it - since those costs are 'invisible' to the Construction or Operation of the new crossing.

On December 10th the Scottish Government announced that the cost of the new Forth Bridge would be about half of the previous estimates. This was because the old bridge would remain partly operational thus allowing the new bridge to be scaled down.

That's great news. But the lower price for the new bridge is still more than twice the estimated cost of a tunnel (as calculated by Forth TAG).

A tunnel could be in place at least a year before a new bridge, for half to a quarter of the cost, be able to carry heavy rail to complement the capacity of the Forth Rail Bridge, and not be subject to any weather closures.

The Scottish Parliament building cost less than £500m and many people think it's a waste of money.

Here we are proposing to build the most expensive infrastructure project in the country, at a cost of 2 Billion Pounds (+/- 250 Million), and so many people already think it's the wrong decision.

It would not even be politically difficult for the current administration to convert the project into a tunnel. It was the previous Labour administration who wanted their names in lights on the New Bridge.

A Tunnel is hidden under the ground. No-one can see it. It just doesn't have the same political leverage of a bridge. After all, with a bridge you can point at it and say - look, I did that.

I hope that common sense will result in a reconsidering of the bridge decision. A Tunnel is the way to go - for all sorts of reasons. A New Bridge is a Bridge Too Far.