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CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
"Queensferry Crossing project ‘months behind schedule’ "
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Posted 7 years ago #
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Drivers face further disruption today when traffic is switched back to the Forth Road Bridge to enable preparations for a series of bridge walks over the Queensferry Crossing from tomorrow.
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Posted 7 years ago # -
I've just spoken to bridge control who think the pickup will probably be at the bus stop by the bridge southbound. If you need to contact them the number is 0131 319 3083. Useful to have in your phone if your crossing regularly.
Sometimes the shuttle service is on demand so always with checking if your the only one waiting.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Thanks @acsimpson
Posted 7 years ago # -
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And even here in Scotland, where our government has set and met impressive carbon reduction targets, winning a high international reputation for climate policy, we have this week been marking the opening of the Queensferry Crossing, a breathtakingly beautiful bridge, and a true feat of 21st century engineering.
Yet this magnificent structure, born of what is supposed to be the age of carbon reduction, lacks even the minimal provision for walkers and cyclists that makes its 1964 neighbour, the Forth Road Bridge, into a human and civic space as well as a road; it is, in functional terms and at road level, nothing more than a giant, high-sided funnel for transporting carbon-fuelled motor vehicles from central Scotland to the north, and vice versa.
Now of course, the age of the carbon-fuelled car may be coming to an end; the future is electric, as many large car manufacturers now tell us. Yet still, the lack of serious environmental debate around the building of the new crossing, and the failure to make the new bridge a model for more varied road use, stands as a profound example of the gap that still exists between day to day policy-making - about how to facilitate our practical lives, and boost our economies - and our avowed principles on climate change; not to mention any long-term vision for ways of life that would sit more lightly on our precious planet, and help save it, and us, from a terrifying future of runaway climate change.
It is, to be sure, hardly surprising that our minds tend to reel at the scale of this task, and its apparent irrelevance to our daily lives; particularly if we still sit, as many of us do, in relatively comfortable western cities, where all systems are operating normally, and the waters are not yet lapping at our own doors.
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Posted 7 years ago # -
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Robbie Calvert (@rsdcalvert)
31/08/2017, 09:38
Before we overly peacock our shiny new 1.35bn bridge please consider this new piece of transport infrastructure built just a few miles awayhttp://pic.twitter.com/E6qmX8Y85x
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Posted 7 years ago # -
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Early signs of the effect of the new crossing have been positive.
More than 1,000 new homes are under construction across a number of developments, while house prices have shot up by more than a third over the past year, according to figures released by ESPC, making Queensferry one of the most desirable areas in Scotland to live.
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How many people are moving to SQ so that they can drive north?
Posted 7 years ago # -
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The Forth Bridges (@TheForthBridges)
31/08/2017, 11:00 pm
The Forth Road Bridge is now open again in both directions. Queensferry Crossing will reopen on 7 September."
Posted 7 years ago # -
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The new bridge will open to traffic at midnight on its opening day to try to keep disruption to a minimum.
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https://inews.co.uk/essentials/news/britains-newest-bridge-set-open-bang/
Posted 7 years ago # -
I overheard that there were tailbacks at 2am on the very first day.
Posted 7 years ago # -
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Bags and camera equipment will be searched and no food or drink will be allowed on the bridge or buses apart from 500ml of water per person.
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Posted 7 years ago # -
The best thing you could only see from up close was the very subtle sag in the upper cables. Impossible to properly capture on most cameras as it was even more slight than lens distortion would add.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Ahahaha. I took 700ml of water and several snacks, which the bag inspector missed.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Bag inspector: "What's in your bad?"
Civilian: "Stuff... Do you want to see inside?"
Bag inspector: "Nah, on you go."Was a nice wee walk, and it was nice of the weather to cooperate. Like @Klaxon, I hadn't appreciated the sag in the cables until sending beneath them.
Posted 7 years ago # -
No just say but sway too. A surprising amount of motion I thought.
Posted 7 years ago # -
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Spectacular plans for glass lifts to a viewing platform at the top of the Forth Road Bridge have been devised, The Scotsman can reveal.
The designs, in an unpublished report, demonstrate the bridge’s potential as a future tourist attraction following the opening of the Queensferry Crossing.
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Posted 7 years ago # -
So, this weekend I crossed over (or under) every bridge on the River Forth. Went under the M9 bridge and the rail bridge in Stirling, crossed the rest on foot, by bike or by train. Something like 250km for the weekend.
I won't list them, because that's the fastest way to discover that I made a mistake and missed one, and I'm not ready for that.
Thanks to whoever had the original idea earlier in this thread. Apologies for not inviting company, but my schedule was both unknown and inflexible, as it was based around my Queensferry Crossing time.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Posted 7 years ago #
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@Frenchy: Point of information, there are actually two rail bridges over the Forth in Stirling. I know they're right next to each other, but they were built about four years apart by different railway companies. The Scottish Central Railway built the first one, for their line to Perth. The Stirling and Dunfermline Railway was forced to build the second one, immediately to the east of the first, for its route to Dunfermline, as a result of a commercial dispute with the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway which prevented them from using the S&DR rails across the river.
Taking that technicality in to account I make it 24 bridges over the Forth, unless you count the M9 bridge and footbridge next to it as two, in which case it's 25. Come to think, the OS has it marked as a footbridge but it looks a lot like a pipeline to me, so maybe that one doesn't count and the M9 bridge does. (If the Throsk Viaduct aka the Alloa Swing Bridge hadn't been dismantled in 1971 there would have been be one more.)
Posted 7 years ago # -
The footbridge next to the M9 is indeed a footbridge as well as a pipeline. The footbridge bit is on the east side, so not easy to see until you're right beside it.
I had clocked that the Stirling rail bridge was indeed two separate bridges (and I did go under them both), but I didn't have a clue about the history, thanks.
Posted 7 years ago # -
If the Throsk Viaduct aka the Alloa Swing Bridge hadn't been dismantled in 1971
Posted 7 years ago # -
Gone but not forgotten Forth crossings must also include the Drip ferry, now alas but the name of a car park.
Posted 7 years ago # -
@Frenchy, that sounds like a great adventure - I'd love to read a write up.
I'm finding it very hard to work out how many bridges there are over the river. I got to 28.
There seem to be lots at Milton within the first 500m of the river with the OS marking FBs at a couple of points.
At least one looks a bit private and would take a bit of brass neck to walk across.
There also seems to be a bridge over a braided bit of the river; not going right across but just to an island. Does that count?
That's the trouble with a challenge like this - once you start digging into it you start having to define rules and stuff. But that just makes it more fun, right?
Posted 7 years ago # -
@IWRATS, also a "Baad Ferry" just down from the Drip on your linked map. Didn't know about that one.
Posted 7 years ago # -
And don't forget the subsea crossing.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Congratulations, @cb, you've found a bridge that I didn't cross! 28 is definitely higher than the number I got, mainly using OSM.
Not sure I'd've had the brass to cross it even if I'd known about it. Let's agree it doesn't count, since there's an island in the middle?
Another no-longer-existent crossing is the hovercraft.
EDIT: Write-up later this week sometime.
Posted 7 years ago #
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