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