The 51-year-old Forth Bridge, which carries more than 70,000 vehicles a day, closed to all traffic on 3 December after engineers found a crack in the steelwork. The bridge has since reopened to vehicles and as of Saturday 20 February, it reopened to HGVs weighing more than 7.5 tonnes. The opening to HGVs is ahead of schedule and was previously twice delayed while strengthening work was carried out.
Although the reopening is good news for freight operators, the financial impact of the lengthy closure must not be forgotten. Chris MacRae, FTA’s head of policy for Scotland, said: ''The financial impact for some operators was devastating. Ironically, they will now have been scheduling work in anticipation of the bridge reopening in mid-March and will have to change their plans again with financial consequences.”
FTA maintained a dialogue with the Scottish Government throughout the closure and was asked to provide feedback from its members. One parcel operator reported additional costs of £11,000 a week for fuel and drivers due to the 80-km detour made necessary by the closure. Drivers’ hours rules were relaxed three times to compensate for the additional journey times.
MacRae said: “Lessons must be learned about the importance of maintaining critical national infrastructure like the Forth Road Bridge. We mustn’t get into a situation like this again.”
Source: lloydsloadinglist.com
