Road Works Off.

Carnegie reads that the major roadworks which were planned for the Forth Road Bridge next year could be postponed until 2016, after the new Forth Bridge is constructed.

"A MAJOR maintenance contract on the Forth Road Bridge is to be postponed until the new crossing is open – even though experts have confirmed crucial joints have reached the end of their life. Replacing main expansion joints on the bridge, scheduled for next year, was expected to mean disruption for up to ten weeks, including possible contraflows and a temporary ban on lorries. The tender for the work came in at £13.7 million – some £5m more than expected. But nearly £6m of cost was for "mini-bridges" to lift traffic over the joints while the work is carried out. Now a review by bridge engineers and outside consultants has concluded the replacement work can safely be delayed until the new bridge opens in 2016, so long as failsafe devices are installed and the joints monitored."

A bit of good news about roadworks on the Forth Bridge for a change.

Magic Roundabout (2).

So, according to the local press the roadworks at Dunfermline's Sinclair Gardens roundabout have been extended for a further month meaning that they will completed two months behind schedule.

Carnegie has little to add to his previous comments, but he suspects that we haven't heard the end of this saga yet. Completion January 2008 anyone?

Here we go again.

Carnegie reads "Motorists have been warned they face at least three months of delays on one of the country's most congested commuter routes. Parts of the Forth Road Bridge carriageway will close for weeks at a time to enable the work to be carried out, starting in April 2009. The major roadworks are needed to replace the roadway's main expansion joins, now reaching the end of their life after 43 years wear and tear."

Carnegie points out that over the last couple of years there have been lane closures on the Forth Road Bridge running to dozens of weekends to allow road surfacing works. Surely there must have been some way of doing the replacement of "expansion joints" at the same time given that the road surface was very largely exposed? And avoiding the next lot of major roadworks in 2009.

Carnegie is beginning to think that the guys at the Forth Estuary Transport Authority (FETA) are either severely incompetent or intent on causing as much disruption as is possible to the punters using the Bridge. He is really not sure which of these two scenarios is most likely.

Bridge roadworks - Fife cut off.

Carnegie reads that the big cheeses at the Forth Estuary Transport Authority (FETA) have said that resurfacing work on the Forth Road Bridge won't have to continue beyond the end of October because improvements in the weather have meant that they have managed to "catch up" on earlier delays.

Carnegie doesn't think that FETA should be giving itself such a big pat on the back for catching up on delays which had already occurred, given the shabby way in which it seems to have undertaken the work. Rather than throwing construction workers at the Bridge when half of it was closed and getting as much work done as possible, they seem instead to have used the minimum amount of resource to get the work done, which inevitably means when the weather is poor you get delays.

Delays for dozens of weekends over the last couple of years... sometimes running to an hour each way ... on one of the major arterial routes in Scotland ... simply to save a bit of cash ... really isn't good enough. Get your act together FETA.

Hoorah.

Carnegie notes that the new M9 Spur will be fully opened today bringing to an end over a year of roadwork misery for commuters heading to and from Fife. "ONE of Scotland's worst traffic bottlenecks will be removed today when a £39 million motorway link with the Forth Road Bridge is fully opened. The M9 spur extension will clear the tailbacks on the A8000 and is expected to cut southbound queues on the bridge during the morning rush hour. The two-mile road has been partially open since last month. However, restrictions while the work was completed are due to be lifted this afternoon after an opening ceremony at lunchtime - two weeks ahead of schedule."

Hooray, and hopefully in the longer term the new road eases congestion. Time will tell.