The new Queensferry Crossing has “more traffic than it can cope with,” according to the head of maintenance at Scotland’s national transport body.
Scott Lees told councillors in Fife the flagship infrastructure project clearly had ‘a number of issues’ around peak traffic time.
Bridge operators stressed the crossing was “not at capacity yet,” though admitted there had been an “acceleration” in the number of vehicles using the bridge.
READ MORE: Increase in Queensferry Crossing traffic accused of boosting congestion
The £1.3 billion replacement for the Forth Road Bridge was opened to vehicles in 2017, but has been hit by a series of issues around snagging and congestion.
Transport chiefs have also come under fire for hampering efforts to reduce congestion and cut climate emissions after a rise in traffic on the bridge after figures revealed more than one million extra journeys had been made on the crossing in the 12 months to October 2019.
However, speaking at a South and West Fife area committee meeting on Wednesday, Mr Lees acknowledged the bridge was “built as a replacement and not to increase provision” across the Forth.
He added the best way to cope with the traffic was to encourage more people to use public transport.
Mr Lees said: “It is clear that at peak times, there is more traffic than the bridge can cope with.”
“There is this view that the new bridge was built and there should be no congestion. But it is important to remember that the Queensferry crossing was built as a replacement, it doesn’t increase the provision across the Forth.”
John Russell, bridge operator for Amey, blamed some of the traffic congestion on driver behaviours, adding the current upsurge in vehicles using the crossing was “nothing out of the ordinary”.
He said: “The rat running – drivers going off and on slip roads to avoid queues – actually adds to the problems."
READ MORE: Queensferry Crossing celebrated on new £20 banknote
"Even if you skip that line, you’re not even beating the traffic, as you still have to rejoin. It’s completely psychological. If drivers would just stay on the main line, it would move much smoother.”
He added: “We do around 24 million journeys a year, 80,000 a day across the bridge. It was built to cope with around 90,000, so we’re not at capacity yet. The bridge was built with a ten year plan in mind.”
“However, the Forth Road Bridge was handling about 70,000 a day, so it’s nothing out of the ordinary.”
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