Project Details

Description

BEAR Scotland (BEAR) has been commissioned by Transport Scotland to undertake a programme of maintenance and improvement works on the Forth Road Bridge (FRB) over the 2026 / 2027 Financial Year. This Record of Determination (RoD) has been produced to cover the following schemes assessed to be relevant projects:

  1. Main Tower Lateral Thrust Bearing Refurbishment
    • The project brief consists of bearing replacement on both the North and South Main Towers and steelwork strengthening. It also consists of painting of new and existing steelwork.
  2. SSUDA Phase 11 and 12
    • The project brief consists of continuing improvements on the Suspended Span Under Deck Access (SSUDA).
  3. Viaduct Box Girder Assessment and Strengthening
    • The project brief is to undertake a variety of refurbishment works including drainage refurbishment, blasting and repainting at gullies, and sealing of gaps and holes across the girders. Blasting and repainting works will help remove a considerable proportion of the lead-based paint systems still present on the FRB.
  4. Footpath Concrete Refurbishment and Resurfacing
    • The project brief is to undertake resurfacing of the footpath across the span of the northbound and southbound carriageways including concrete repairs to the deck where necessary.
  5. Footway Elastomeric Bearing Replacement
    • The proposed works are to conduct refurbishment works on the elastomeric bearings on both the east and west footway along the length of the structure.
  6. Vehicle Restraint Barrier / Grillage Refurbishment – Phase 3
    • The project brief consists of continuing, predominately in-situ, refurbishment of the grillages, via blasting, steelwork repair and painting on site from encapsulation structures.
  7. Main Cable Acoustic Monitoring Replacement
    • The project brief consists of installation of a new acoustic monitoring system on the main suspension cables of the Forth Road Bridge.
  8. Top Chord Strengthening
    • The project brief consists of refurbishment and strengthening of the top chord splice plates across the entirety of the FRB, covering 192 locations.

The works are programmed to be completed within the 2026/2027 financial year with the first scheme expected to begin April 2026. All works are currently programmed to utilise a daytime working pattern, however some occasional night working may be required to facilitate the construction / removal of temporary works i.e. encapsulation structures.

Where a site compound is necessary to facilitate the works, it will likely be located beneath the bridge within the existing compounds at the North Anchorage or South Anchorages (for individual schemes see Annex B). Where these are not used the BEAR Scotland South Queensferry Depot may be utilised.

Where traffic management (TM) is required, it may involve carriageway closures, single lane closure and footway closures.

Location

All proposed schemes lie on the A9000 FRB, which spans the Firth of Forth, connecting South Queensferry to North Queensferry.