Projects details

Description

BEAR Scotland (BEAR) has been commissioned by Transport Scotland to undertake a programme of maintenance and improvement works on the Forth Road Bridge (FRB) over the 2025 / 2026 Financial Year. This Record of Determination (RoD) has been produced to cover the following schemes assessed to be relevant projects:

  • Main Tower Lateral Thrust Bearing Refurbishment
    • The project brief consists of bearing replacement on both the North and South Main Towers and steelwork strengthening. It also consists of painting of new and existing steelwork.
  • SSUDA Phase 10 and 10a
    • The project brief consists of continuing improvements on the Suspended Span Under Deck Access (SSUDA).
  • Viaduct Box Girder Assessment and Strengthening
    • The project brief is to undertake a variety of refurbishment works including drainage refurbishment, blasting and repainting at gullies, and sealing of gaps and holes across the girders. Blasting and repainting works will help remove a considerable proportion of the lead-based paint systems still present on the FRB.
  • Footpath Concrete Refurbishment and Resurfacing
    • The project brief is to undertake resurfacing of the footpath across the span of the northbound and southbound carriageways including concrete repairs to the deck where necessary.
  • Footway Elastomeric Bearing Replacement
    • The proposed works are to conduct refurbishment works on the elastomeric bearings on both the east and west footway along the length of the structure.
  • Vehicle Restraint Barrier / Grillage Refurbishment – Phase 2
    • The project brief consists of continuing, predominately in-situ, refurbishment of the grillages, via blasting, steelwork repair and painting on site from encapsulation structures.
  • Removal of Side Tower Post Tensioned Cables
    • The project brief consists of removing damaged post tensioned cables within the side towers within the northern and southern extents of the FRB.
  • Suspended Span Carriageway Concrete Deck
    • The project brief consists of removal of damaged / defective areas of concrete below the span of the deck along with concrete repairs of these areas and replacement of corroded reinforcement where necessary.
  • Runway Beam Bracket Replacement – Phase 2
    • The project brief consists of continuing the fabrication and installation of the remaining brackets on the north and south side of the main span of the bridge.

The works are programmed to be completed within the 2025/2026 financial year with the first scheme expected to begin on 1st April 2025. All works are currently programmed to utilise a daytime working pattern.

Where a site compound is necessary to facilitate the works, it will likely be located beneath the bridge within areas which have been used previously as a contractor’s compound. 

Where traffic management (TM) is required, it may involve carriageway closures, single lane closure and footway closures.

Location

All proposed schemes lie on the A9000 FRB, which spans the Firth of Forth, connecting South Queensferry to North Queensferry (Figure 1 and Figure 2).