A few weeks back the last piece of roadway decking was added to the new Queensferry Crossing, which is the name for the latest bridge to be built over the River Forth. Once the roadway decking has been 'surfaced' and the approach road on the north side completed (plus a few thousand other little things) the bridge will be ready for public use.
This will become the third bridge crossing at Queensferry, with one being built in each of the last three centuries:
- Forth Rail Bridge completed 1890
- Forth Road Bridge completed 1964
- Queensferry Crossing completed 2017
Over the last few years I have taken some photos and videos of the new bridge during construction so I thought I would share these with you.:
Firstly the installation of the caissons (water-tight retaining structures) required to sink the foundations for the bridge towers. Early in 2013 we saw these huge metal rings being lowered into the River Forth to sit on the river bed.
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| Line of Caissons for New Bridge |
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| Sinking Caissons for new Queensferry Crossing |
The mud and silt was then removed from inside the caissons before the water was pumped out. They were then filled with concrete to form the foundations for the bridge towers. By the end of 2013 the foundations were almost in place:
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| Building a third Forth Bridge at Queensferry |
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| Laying the foundations for the new Queensferry Crossing |
As well as the construction taking place out on the river, work was also underway to construct the approach piers on the north and south banks. By the end of the summer in 2014 the roadway deckings were being inched out on to these piers using temporary support frames:
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| Temporary support frame for southern approach roadway decking |
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| Southern Approach Roadway starting to take shape |
By this time the bridge towers were clearly visible as they rose from the river and the roadway decking could be seen pushing out from both shores. The southern roadway seemed to be a bit further advanced than the one on the northern shore ............. but hey! ..........it wasn't a race or anything like that!!.......... just the Fifers were a bit slower, that's all............. I might pay for that comment!
Here is how the bridge construction looked in August 2014:
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| Bridge Construction from Southern Shore |
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| Bridge Construction from Society Point |
Sorry about the quality of the last two photos, it was a bit murky that day.
As this new bridge is to be a replacement for the existing Forth Road Bridge (which will be retained for public transport, bicycles and pedestrians only) there was also major road-works underway on both shores in order to divert the A90. For those of you who don't know anything about the A90 it is the main route from Edinburgh heading over the Forth Road Bridge to Fife, Perth, Dundee and all points north (in other words quite a major artery).
The road-works on the north (Fife) side were much more substantial and complicated than on the south side as they accommodate a railway line, the main route to Rosyth ferry port and a major sewage works serving Dunfermline. They also had to do lots of rock blasting to carve out the new route for the A90.........which was mostly carried out at night as I remember.
On the southern side we had a slightly easier time of it, but they did have to replace a bridge which carried the B800 (Queensferry to Kirkliston road) as it wasn't wide enough to span the new A90 being constructed. This involved some impressive lifting equipment as the new flyover was lifted in to place over the period of a couple of nights in October 2014:
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| Part of new B800 Flyover |
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| Serious Lifting Equipment |
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| Half of new B800 Flyover in place |
By April 2015 the three bridge towers were almost complete, ready for the next phase of construction; which would involved attaching sections of roadway decking to either side of the towers:
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| Three towers taking shape |
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| North tower with Rosyth in the background |
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| Central and Southern Towers |
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| Southern Approach Roadway at Port Edgar |
Towards the end of 2015 the work on the southern side of the A90 was well underway and the following photos were taken from the new B800 flyover which was now up and running:
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| Removal of old B800 flyover with new bridge towers in background |
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| New route for A90 taking shape |
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| Work to remove remains of old B800 flyover |
The progress on the towers by the end of 2015 can be seen in this photo taken from the Transport Scotland View Point:
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| Queensferry Crossing construction from Transport Scotland viewpoint |
You can see that the towers are almost at their full height and that some decking sections have already been suspended on cables from the towers. This progress on the construction of the bridge is also highlighted in the following photos taken in January 2016:
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| Southern Tower viewed from beneath roadway decking |
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| Southern Roadway Decking pushing out |
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| Roadway Decking suspended from Southern Tower |
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| North and Central Towers with suspended Roadway Decking |
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| New Bridge viewed from Southern Shore |
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| New Bridge viewed from Echline |
A couple of months later and the roadway decking had extended further on each of the towers and on the north and south approaches:
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| Bridge construction viewed from southern shore |
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| Bridge construction viewed from Society Point |
By April 2016 the roadway decking between the north tower and the north approach had almost joined up (Yes the Fifers appeared to be winning the race!!). The gaps in other areas were getting smaller as well:
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| North Tower and North Approach almost joined together |
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| Bridge Construction April 2016 |
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| Bridging the gap |
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| Gap between Southern Approach and Southern Tower |
Construction of the roadway decking continued throughout 2016 and by the end of the year there was only one piece of the jigsaw remaining and that was the final link to the Southern Approach:
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| The missing link viewed from southern shore |
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| Bridge roadway almost complete, viewed from Society Point |
Some bad weather over the winter months meant it was February 2017 before the final section of roadway decking was winched in to position and bolted together:
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| The final link now in place |
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| Queensferry Crossing linked up February 2017 |
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| Final Link viewed from Port Edgar |
Whilst all this bridge construction was underway there was another major structure taking shape over in Rosyth. A new Royal Navy Aircraft Carrier was being built over in the Rosyth Dockyard and in February 2017 it was on clear view:
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| New Aircraft Carrier viewed from Society Point |
So that is about it for my story about the construction of the new Queensferry Crossing but
before I go here is a compilation video showing some of the key stages of the bridge construction:
I will leave you to ponder whether there will ever be a Fourth Forth Bridge at Queensferry .......... maybe have to wait until next century for that!!
Take care
TeddyEdward
