Overview of Forth Road Bridge

Located 9 miles (15 km) west of Edinburgh, the Forth Road Bridge spans the Firth of Forth between South Queensferry and North Queensferry. Construction began on this suspension bridge in 1958 with the work undertaken by a consortium of the three largest construction firms in Britain at the time; namely Sir William Arrol & Company, the Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company and Dorman Long. When it was opened by HM Queen Elizabeth II on the 4th September, 1964, the bridge was the longest in the world outside the USA. In 2001, the bridge was 'Category-A listed' reflecting its importance as an engineering structure.

While a road-bridge at Queensferry had been proposed since the 18th century, the government finally committed to the project in 1947. Costing £11.5 million, with a further £8 million needed for the approach roads, the bridge was established with tolls for motorised traffic, although is free for pedestrians. The initial costs and accrued interest were paid off using these tolls by 1993, although the tolls were retained thereafter to cover the costs of maintenance and strengthening the bridge to cope with increasing traffic volumes. Traffic is heavy over the bridge, frequently exceeding 70,000 vehicles per day and long queues are now a feature of peak-time travel.

The bridge is nearly 1828m (2000 yards) long while its main span, of 1006m (3300 feet), is the tenth longest in the world; its towers are over 150m (500 feet) high. The deck, which carries four lanes of traffic with two walkways, is suspended from cables which are 5.9 cm (2.3 inches) in diameter and composed of 11,618 high-tensile steel wires, giving a total length of wire of 49,280 km (30,621 miles).

The bridge was originally run by the Forth Road Bridge Joint Board on behalf of the government, but in 2001 the Scottish Executive replaced this body with the Forth Estuary Transport Authority.