AS the Queensferry Crossing opened, it was disappointing that some Scottish politicians were still sniping at the delays to the project completion.
This bridge is located at one of the windiest estuaries in Scotland, and the main delay to construction progress has been the cessation of work due to high winds. I am old enough to remember January 14, 1968, when the wind gauge on the Forth Bridge, the railway structure, stuck at 114 mph.
The professional engineers who designed, scoped, and priced the costs to complete the Queensferry Crossing used weather records to assess the downtime allowance.
They made an estimate, a judgment, from available information, but the weather, over which they had no control, turned out differently, hence the delays. Due allowance has been made for future winds using "wind barriers installed to withstand the strongest gusts and avoid wind closure" (“Forth's bridges to bring tourism boost”, The Herald, August 29). The civil engineering profession is not good at blowing its own trumpet, but this is a project which deserves trumpet blowing.
Alasdair MacLennan, chartered civil engineer (retired),
18 St Thomas's Well, Stirling.
NOW listen carefully and pay attention. As we hail and praise the new Queensferry Crossing bridge as the third Forth bridge, we should note that it is indeed the fifth Forth bridge( by adding the older Kincardine Bridge and the Clackmannanshire Bridge to the new Forth bridge plus the iconic railway bridge and the older Forth Road Bridge).
Thus the new Forth bridge is the fifth Forth bridge but it is the fourth Forth road bridge. Are we clear now?
Thom Cross,
18 Needle Green, Carluke.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel