27 September 2012 Ewen Macdonell - New Forth Crossing

The Forth Replacement crossing was the talk of the evening for the 30 members and guests in attendance at the Rotary Club of Bridge of Allan and Dunblane last week.  President Iain Smith welcomed visitor Davison Steen and introduced the speaker, Ewen Macdonell.

Ewen, who is community liaison officer for the project and representative of one of the lead contractors Morrison Construction, set about the task of explaining the construction phase of the largest civil engineering activity in progress across .  Now into Year 2 of the 5 year project, Ewen explained how the foundations were bedding themselves into the base of the to allow the construction of the 3 main support towers and the approach viaducts for the 2.7 km bridge.  From the project office compound on the (much of which saw a former existence in the Olympic Park construction site), 250 staff from a consortium of risk sharing international contracting companies oversee blasting, drilling, and concrete pouring operations occurring round the clock.  Ewen explained that as with other recent projects such as the M74 extension, the project represents a fixed price (£790m) to the public purse now that projects are set up for both the design and construction elements.  With penalty clauses in place, there is every expectation of achieving the target opening in December 2016.  The bridge once constructed will be to motorway standard and as a stay supported bridge will be designed to allow traffic to flow even in strong winds - hopefully a significant reduction in the number of delays that bedevil the existing suspension bridge (which will be used for public transport, taxis and pedestrians).  With special dehumidification built in and the design allowing in situ replacement of key parts, hopefully we won't be hearing stories of corrosion issues threatening this bridge in the future either.  Following a lot of questions from the floor, Stuart Brown gave a vote of thanks on behalf of the club for a very interesting and informative presentation.

l-r visitor, Davison Steen, Ewen Macdonnell, President Iain Smith and speakers host Stuart Brown.

In other business, the annual shoebox appeal was launched, and everyone was reminded of the upcoming Beat Beethoven fun run taking place at on .  Details for individuals or teams of the fit or adventurous at heart can be found on the www.beatbeethoven.co.uk website.