March 21 2011

Finance secretary John Swinney has announced that a consortium comprising Dragados, Hochtief, American Bridge International and Morrison Construction has been selected as the preferred bidder for a replacement Forth road crossing.

The announcement concludes an 18 month tendering process which saw the Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors consortium undercut their rivals with a low bid of up to £1.62bn, significantly less than the £2.3bn which had been predicted.

Insisting that the bid was valid and of a high technical and quality standard Swinney intends to award FCBC the contract in April with construction commencing shortly thereafter.

It is projected that the new crossing would be available to road traffic by 2016.

Swinney said: “The successful FCBC consortium includes world class bridge building and civil engineering firms with strong records of successfully delivering similar projects throughout the world.”

Campaigners have cried foul at the announcement so soon to a planned election, claiming that the cash is being squandered when the existing crossing could be refurbished at much lower cost.

Arup were selected along with Jacobs Engineering to design, develop and project manage the cable stayed crossing.

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