Queensferry Bridge
The 2006 -2017 Queensferry Crossing project created a second road bridge over the River Forth near Edinburgh. Transport Scotland, set up a client team that consisted of department staff and staff from two major civil engineering consultancies - Arups and Jacobs. At all stages, the client had highly competent staff who were deeply involved in the management of the project.
Features or the processes used included:
- Use a system approach: Consider the system as a whole and the details. Effectiveness and efficiency – continual Improvement.
- Control risk: Identify anything that might go wrong; take action to prevent it happening / manage risk and opportunity.
- Constant vigilance to identify and correct errors/faults
- Consider options: Do not jump to solutions; look at a range of options. Do not, at the outset, decide the solution will be a bridge. Consider also tunnels and causeways. Allocate a significant amount of resource for deciding on the form that the crossing will take.
- Use technology to its limits: For example, a state-of-the-art intelligent transport control system was installed. Advanced modelling methods were used to predict the behaviour of the bridge under load.
- Plan: Carefully plan all activities. Time schedules are established and every effort is made to keep to them.
- Take a long-term view: Consider durability in the design. Install monitoring devices so that in 50 years' time the integrity of the structure can be assessed.
- Adopt demonstrable, open governance: stakeholder communications and community engagement.
- Collaborate: Everyone involved is focused on the project objectives: within budget, on time, to specification, safe working, reduce environmental impact, etc.
- Adopt an integrated safety philosophy: applied across the project: ‘Bridging the Forth Safely’.
- Communicate: Use co-location of project staff. The client, designers and contractors share an office building so that they can communicate easily
- Address staff development: communication and training.
For further infornation see 2018 IES Journal paper