A Royally Good Job!
The Queensferry Crossing opened on the 30th August, kicking off an epic week of events celebrating the completion of the new £1.35bn bridge over the river Forth. lays the iconic 19th Century Forth Bridge, which carries the railway over the river and adds a precious bit of history to the iconic body of water. The first vehicles travelled over the Queensferry Crossing in the early hours of the morning, eager to make the new and breath-taking journey across the River Forth. Naturally, by the morning rush hour, it took more than an hour to clear the bridge in both directions due to the large number of drivers crossing for the first time. As the new bridge will now take on most of the traffic that the 53-year-old Forth Road Bridge used to, it is a great asset to the entirety of Scotland. On the evening of the 28th August, a collection of vintage, modern and electric vehicles drove along the bridge in a procession, marking the symbolic handover from contractors to the Scottish government. It was followed by a light show across the bridge to celebrate the impressive completion of the biggest infrastructure project Scotland has seen in over twenty years. The Queensferry Crossing was then closed again on Saturday 2nd September to allow members of the public to walk across it. Around 50,000 people were given tickets after a ballot for a “once-in-a-lifetime” chance to walk over the new bridge on Saturday and Sunday. This was then followed by a royal visit from the Queen on Monday 4th September, ahead of the bridge fully opening later in the week. The bridge and its events clearly made a brilliant impact, and Pirtek is extremely proud to say it worked hard to make those events run smoothly.
The new crossing is one of monumental status, with the man behind the building project, Michael Martin, describing it as “one of the world’s great bridges”. Pirtek, who assisted with emergency hose replacement, is extremely proud to have played even a small part in the state-of-the-art project. The new 1.7 miles (2.7km) publicly-funded crossing is the biggest infrastructure project Scotland has seen in a generation, and will replace the Forth Road Bridge as the main road route between Edinburgh and Fife, carrying 24 million vehicles a year. The existing road bridge, built in 1964 and berated by maintenance problems, will continue to be used by cyclists, pedestrians and eventually buses but will no longer be burdened by everyday motor traffic. Just across the river
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