Official Report 488KB pdf
Item 3 is an update from the Queensferry crossing project team. I welcome back, from Transport Scotland, David Climie, project director, and Lawrence Shackman, project manager, Forth replacement crossing team. Mr Climie, would you like to make some opening remarks?
I am pleased to be able to report continuing good progress on all aspects of the work for the FRC project since our previous appearance before the committee, exactly one year ago.
The three completed contracts are operating well, and progress on the principal contract for the Queensferry crossing and approach roads continues on time for completion by late 2016. Overall, that progress has allowed us to announce a reduction in the project budget range, from £1.45 billion to £1.6 billion down to £1.4 billion to £1.45 billion—that is as announced in the budget statement last September. That means that the project has realised £145 million of savings since construction started in June 2011.
On the Fife intelligent transport system contract, early monitoring during the first year of operation indicates southbound journey time savings of around eight minutes during the morning peak period, with five to 10 buses also using the southbound bus lane during the morning peak. Use of the bus lane is expected to increase following the opening of the Halbeath park-and-ride facility at the end of November 2013, and that facility is already being used by more than 200 regular daily commuters.
On the M9 junction 1A contract, the first year of operation concluded at the end of January 2014, and there is on-going data collection and analysis to inform monitoring and evaluation of that contract. Initial indications are that there are journey time savings of around two minutes during the peak period, and the southbound bus lane to Newbridge is also being used by buses to bypass peak-hour queues.
Perhaps more important to residents in Newton on the A904, early monitoring from February 2013 to July 2013 indicates that heavy goods vehicle traffic through the village decreased by 52 per cent compared with the same period in 2012, and that overall traffic decreased by 13 per cent. Following that period, additional traffic-calming measures in Newton were installed as part of the FRC project in August 2013, and we will continue to monitor and report on the traffic flows as traffic patterns adjust to the new road infrastructure.
The third contract to be completed was the FRC contact and education centre and the traffic Scotland national control centre, which are located in the Forth Estuary Transport Authority car park on the south side of the Forth road bridge. The traffic Scotland national control centre, which relocated to that building from Glasgow in April 2013, now controls the entire Scottish trunk road network. It also has a resilience room, broadcasting facilities and police and emergency services facilities.
Public open days have been held at the contact and education centre two days per month from April to November 2013, attracting nearly 2,400 visitors. The success of those events means that this year we will run weekly open days on Saturdays, commencing on 29 March and running through until the end of October 2014. We have also contacted every primary and secondary school in Scotland to advise them of the education programme that is run at the CEC to complement the curriculum for excellence and to promote the benefits of a career in engineering. Between September 2013 and February 2014, there have been 69 school visits attended by 1,707 pupils.
11:45On 11 and 12 February, we held our annual project update briefing sessions at CEC, with four open sessions for the public and three sessions by invitation for elected representatives, the media and key stakeholders. The feedback from those sessions was very positive. In addition, since the beginning of 2013, more than 2,000 interested individuals have heard a talk or presentation about the project as part of our wider outreach and education programme.
I turn to the principal contract. On the road works on the north side, initial consolidation of the Ferrytoll embankment structure has continued as planned and the piling for the foundations of the bridge over the new B981 and the northbound public transport link road is in progress. Three new bridges crossing the Rosyth railway branch line in the Ferrytoll area are complete and concrete columns for the new M90 overbridges at Ferrytoll have begun to appear beside the existing roundabout. The traffic management and rerouting of local roads, cycleways and footpaths in the area have been carefully planned, and over the coming months we will run a number of community engagement events in the North Queensferry, Inverkeithing and Rosyth areas as well as with users of the strategic road network to discuss the upcoming works.
On the south side, work on the road alignment from Scotstoun past Dundas home farm to Echline has advanced well and is clearly visible. The new B800 bridge is being constructed alongside the existing South Queensferry to Kirkliston road: the north abutment is complete and the new steel bridge beams are expected to be installed this summer. Traffic will be rerouted across that new bridge in early 2015, with the existing bridge being demolished later that year.
The South Queensferry junction alongside the existing A904 has progressed well, with the steel beams for both bridges having been installed in November and work on deck concreting and the rerouting of the A904 in progress. That work is being carried out largely offline to minimise any disruption to traffic on the A904. Once the traffic has been rerouted through the new roundabout, the excavation work for the M90 road cutting on the existing A904 road alignment can be completed.
Work to reconstruct Society Road to include a footpath and cycleway has been completed this year, three years ahead of the original plan, thereby providing an early community benefit. In addition, at the east end of Society Road, a signalised pedestrian crossing has been installed on the B924 by the City of Edinburgh Council on behalf of the project, as required by the Forth Crossing Act 2011.
That brings me to the newly named Queensferry crossing. The Queensferry crossing was the winning name in last year’s successful name the bridge competition. More than 35,000 votes were cast for the five shortlisted names, and the Queensferry crossing received more than 35 per cent of the votes.
The land-based approach viaduct piers S7 and S8 have been completed and are ready for the south approach viaduct steel to be launched across them. Fabrication of the steelwork at Cleveland Bridge UK in Darlington has progressed well, and the first deliveries arrived on site last September.
Although it is largely out of the local community’s sight in the cutting, the assembly work is progressing well. The first launch operation of about 80m of the northbound viaduct took place in December and the same operation for the southbound viaduct took place in January. During March, the northbound viaduct will become far more visible as it is launched across piers S8 and S7, stopping just above Society Road, and further launches out across the Forth as far as pier S3 will take place at about two-monthly intervals over the year. On the north side of the bridge, construction of the north abutment is making good progress and the area for the assembly and launch of the north approach viaduct steelwork is being prepared.
On the marine side of things, a huge amount of activity has taken place in the Forth, with barges, floating cranes and other marine plant being used at the various foundation locations. With regard to the three towers, the handover from the marine team to the tower team happened when the two caissons and the cofferdam at Beamer rock were pumped out and work was able to continue in the dry. That occurred in May on the centre tower, August on the north tower and September on the south tower.
Since that time, work on the massively reinforced tower bases has been completed and work is now progressing on the three towers themselves. The centre tower currently leads the way with seven pours out of 54 completed, and it now stands at a height of 28m. The north tower is in second place, with three pours completed, and the south tower is just behind that, with two pours completed. It is worth mentioning that the south tower started from the greatest depth—40m below sea level—in order to reach the rock and, at 30m, it also has the largest internal diameter caisson.
The underwater concrete pour in September was a world record 16,869m3. The concrete was placed in a 15-day, 24-hours-a-day pour using a fleet of four barges, each of which had six concrete mixers using concrete supplied by the contractor's dedicated concrete batching plant in the port of Rosyth. That means that more than two thirds of the total concrete required for the south tower has already been placed. The towers are all expected to reach deck level by the summer, after which temporary trestles will be installed on either side of each tower to support the first four deck units. The units will be erected before the end of this year.
As you will appreciate, the progress that I have just described means that the Queensferry crossing works will be increasingly visible to users of the Forth road bridge this year, and I take this opportunity to reiterate the strong safety message that we gave at the recent project update meetings: drivers should keep their eyes on the road ahead and not be distracted by the adjacent construction works. Webcams that can be accessed through the project website give excellent views of the work on the project.
In short, three of the four contracts are complete and operating successfully and the fourth is progressing well. In 2013, we saw the transition from underwater to above-water construction of the Queensferry crossing. Overall, the project continues to progress on time and to a significantly reduced budget, and we continue to be on schedule to complete the crossing by late 2016.
Thank you for that. Alex Johnstone will begin the questioning.
The Sunday Herald does not sell many copies on my street, but I hear that it was a good read on 23 February. What is your response to the concerns raised in an article in that edition of the newspaper about the main towers and their construction?
It is always very interesting to read such articles in the press and I am glad to be able to respond to some of the points that have been made in them.
We are almost exactly halfway through a major project lasting six years; 34 months have gone and there are 34 months to go. Our overall programme runs to more than 250 pages and contains more than 18,000 activities. Some of those activities will inevitably take longer than the contractor might originally have envisaged; some will go quicker; and some will be reprogrammed as work progresses. Overall, however, the contractor has put adequate risk mitigation and weather allowances in the programme, and nothing that has occurred to date has jeopardised the final completion date of the end of 2016 that I set out in my opening statement.
Sometimes the route to that end will vary over a six-year period. That is not unexpected, but, given the progress that we have made with the towers, I am confident that we will get to where we need to get to by the end of 2016.
In a subsequent television interview, you indicated that the contractors had changed their plans for the construction of the bridge deck as they felt they needed to “pick up some time”. What changes have been made to the construction plans and what might happen if the contractors cannot pick up time?
That comment probably shows my background of 25 years as a contractor rather than a client. In my experience, that is exactly what happens: you start with a programme that lays out the initial path from start to finish but—and this is particularly the case in design-and-build contracts—things will develop as the design progresses. Moreover, if you bring together a world-class team and a certain amount of expertise, you expect to develop and refine your methodologies as you progress through the project.
That is exactly what has happened here. Under the original plan, it was thought that the contractors would initially build out from two towers and then use the same equipment to transfer the work across to the third tower. Obviously, that approach would have taken longer than one involving working on all three towers simultaneously. Quite early on in the project, the contractors looked at the methodology and decided that, with two extra sets of lifting equipment, which they could get for a relatively small outlay, they could work on and build out from all three towers simultaneously.
That approach had two advantages. First, it reduced that period of the programme, which gave the contractors more float elsewhere. They have always been very open about their view that the marine and underwater work would be the most challenging part of the project, and that it would be better to build in more allowance if possible.
The second advantage of the approach is that it shortened the total period for constructing the deck. That work is done at height with greater exposure to wind, and shortening the period of that work reduces the risk of everything else slowing down over that period.
Although the changes to the timescale for preparing the tower bases are understandable and have been adequately explained, why did you not pick up the issue in previous reports?
When we appeared before the committee a year ago, we outlined that the transition from below water to above water would take place in the summer of 2013, which is what happened. The report in the Sunday Herald perhaps misinterpreted what had been presented. It is important to point out that the work inside the caisson has been largely invisible. The transfer from wet to dry in the caisson happened at minus 11m. Although we were working in the dry, it was not actually at water level—at zero. Things happened pretty well in line with what I outlined to the committee previously and with our expectations. It was perhaps just not as visible as some people might have interpreted it would be from what we said.
Where, then, do you think the Sunday Herald article came from? How did people get the idea that everything was going haywire?
It is obviously a very visible project. A lot of people are looking at the project and there are a lot of experts out there who like to comment on such projects. It is normal for a major infrastructure project to have a lot of people looking at it. However, they do not necessarily know all the details, as we do on a day-to-day basis. They might think of how they would have done it. I think that one of the angles that came out of the Sunday Herald article was that there are people who would have done the project in different ways. Their view is that they would not have done it in the way that it is being done and that if it had been done their way, the project might be in a different position. It is very common for major infrastructure projects of the size of this one to get comment and speculation on what is going on and how things are developing.
Was the Sunday Herald invited to visit as part of your on-going engagement process, and did it visit?
It was invited to the session that we had in February, but it did not attend. On that occasion, there was a very open question-and-answer session at the end. I attended it, as did Carlo Germani, the Forth crossing bridge constructors’ project director. We would have been very happy to address questions from the Sunday Herald, had we been asked.
You finished your presentation by saying that the project was on time, but you did not say that it was on budget.
I think that I said that it was under budget.
Under budget. Okay.
I had some questions, but I think that you answered most of them in your fairly comprehensive opening statement, Mr Climie. Can you highlight any key events in the construction in the next six months that you think might be of interest to the Parliament?
As I outlined, things are going to be very visible going forward. What is clearly going to happen is that at two-month intervals we will see the south approach viaduct steelwork being launched out from the south shore. A V-shaped pier will progressively appear and then the approach viaduct steel will be pushed over that. As I said, that will happen roughly every two months over the next year. That will be clearly seen coming out from the south shore.
Work on the towers, which are now visible and can be clearly seen, is parallel to that. Last Friday, we jacked up the tower crane at the centre tower another 20m, so it is now well above the height of the Forth road bridge deck. By summer of this year, the three towers will get to around the height of that deck. At that point, we will put in some trestling on either side of the towers and then the first deck units will appear around the towers themselves—they will be supported on the temporary trestles rather than the cables. Those will also appear before the end of this year.
I want to ask about community engagement. What progress has been made in addressing the concerns of residents that we raised with you back in March 2013? I hear that there is no road cleaning regime and that no routine cleaning regime is in place for footpaths and roads. There are concerns about air quality, particularly around the Echline corner area, and flooding has been caused by construction vehicle spillage filling up gullies and so on. There are residents who are still concerned about noise issues. What steps are being taken to address those concerns? Have you addressed the points that we raised with you last year?
We take all those issues very seriously and listen to comments when they come in via the hotline, through the community forum—which is the main arena where issues are raised—or by any of the means that people use to raise queries. Over the course of the project so far, we have had 149 complaints out of a total of 533 contacts by phone, email and so on. To put that into context, that is about five complaints a month over the course of the project since August 2011.
12:00You are right to say that we have had quite a bit of dialogue with the residents, community councils and the community forum about the cleanliness of the A904. We have made sure that the contractor has put in wheel washers wherever he has access points that are there for a reasonable duration. Even if an access point to the site is there only for a short period, he has to take appropriate measures to ensure that the road and the footpaths are kept clean. A road brush is normally employed in those areas. We continue to monitor those situations to ensure that the impacts are minimised as far as possible.
One of the other issues on the A904 is the general state of the road. The A904 is in a pretty poor condition—a fact that has been recognised by the City of Edinburgh Council—all the way along from our current works at Echline corner to Echline roundabout. There are proposals to reconstruct the A904, not only through resurfacing but by addressing drainage. Those things are combining in a way that does not help the situation.
Having said all that, I think that the reduction in the amount of construction traffic that is using the A904 to deliver materials has been fairly marked during the course of the past year. It pretty much ceased in November, along with the shale deliveries from Winchburgh, although those deliveries are due to resume sometime later this month. When those wagons were travelling along the A904, there was—as you rightly say—a cleaning regime in place, which was the joint responsibility of the contractor and his supplier. The City of Edinburgh Council also has responsibility for some cleaning of the road. The road and the bus shelters were being cleaned every two weeks, as a minimum, and that will resume shortly, when the shale deliveries recommence. Any other aspects will be dealt with on a need-to-clean basis. Making sure that the road and the pavements there are kept clean is very much within our sights.
The residents have also raised issues regarding air quality and noise. As we have said before, we are monitoring noise levels at various locations around the site, focusing particularly on the south side because the properties are closer to the works there. We have had one or two instances of the noise levels exceeding the agreed thresholds, but the noise regime is well managed through the noise liaison group, which meets regularly and involves the local authorities, as we have said previously. As far as possible, the contractor has employed the best practical means to reduce the noise levels.
There have been a couple of instances of the community being concerned about works going over the normal working hours. Whenever possible, we have issued a flyer notification to the residents concerned, stating that the works have permission to overrun. A good example of that was when it was known that one of the concrete pours for one of the piers on the south approach viaduct was going to overrun into the evening because of the nature of the concrete pour. Notification was given so that residents were made aware of that, and the activity was not particularly noisy anyway.
We arranged a tour for some of the residents to see the work that we are doing in Echline field and on the south approach roads. They were all equally amazed by the volume of work that was being done so close to them, including work at the A904 South Queensferry junction and the assembly work for the south approach viaduct, all of which is tucked away in cuttings and behind protective bunds. All the residents were amazed by how much work had been done that they had not been aware of. That is the other side of the coin. There have been a small number of complaints, but a huge amount of work has been done, and when people have come to look at it they have been stunned.
You have said that there have been a small number of complaints and so on. We are told that 130 compensation claims have been put in, of which 22 have been settled in full and 25 have received 90 per cent payments. That means that fewer than half have been settled. Can you give us an idea of the nature of those compensation claims and the value that is still outstanding to be paid?
Certainly. The claims that we are talking about are on the part of people who are directly affected by the scheme—landowners, lessees and tenants. They are not part 1 claims, which are post-construction claims.
Out of a possible 316 claims, to date 133 claims have been received. Of them, 23 have had full and final payments made; 27 have had 90 per cent of the advance payment made; and 38 claims are being processed by Transport Scotland, via the district valuer. A further 41 claims have been closed by the district valuer, as they have no vested interest in any plot of land that has been compulsorily purchased; and three cases have been closed by the district valuer on negotiation with the residents, who withdrew their claims because they were so small—they were single-figure sums.
In terms of monetary aspects, the estimated budget for compensation in the financial memorandum was £12.7 million. To date, we have paid out a total of £5.32 million on 50 cases. Of the remainder, which is around £6 million, I think that £4.21 million is attributed to three specific cases. Those are quite big claims, which are still being processed.
The picture that I am trying to build up is that the situation is being managed. A number of people have not yet raised claims, for whatever reason, but we are dealing as best we can with the claims that have been raised.
In the recent community forums—the north one, which took place on 19 February, and the south one, which took place on 26 February—were any new areas of concern raised by the residents? If so, what are you doing to address them?
On the north side, we have been discussing the upcoming works at Ferrytoll, which we have mentioned in the recent public briefings. The community there requested a further briefing in the not-too-distant future, and that has been arranged for 25 March and will take place in North Queensferry. We will take that briefing to them and will explain what is happening on the project.
Subsequently, we will hold briefings on the Ferrytoll junction works, which will start in earnest as we go through 2014. The community was quite concerned about when those briefings would take place and it wanted them to happen timeously, before the works start. That is very much on our radar.
Another issue on the north side is what is happening with the overflow car park—which is commonly known as the Deep Sea World overflow car park—and where that parking capacity will go. We were able to clarify that issue, which is good because parking is a big issue in North Queensferry.
On the south side, one of the biggest issues was one that we have touched on today: the cleanliness of the A904. Concerns were raised about the works in the Echline area in particular. The planting and seeding of earthworks in that area was done as soon as possible. We have also had one-to-ones with some of the people in the area to try to understand in a bit more detail particular concerns in the community and to give a better indication of the timing of particular works, so we can give people a bit more comfort with regard to tidying up and finishing off the area around Echline corner.
It should be borne in mind that the South Queensferry junction roundabout will be complete this summer, and I believe that the contractor aims to get all of the works in that area, including the landscaping, finished as soon as possible thereafter.
Are you satisfied that the community forums are providing an effective way for local residents and businesses to engage with contractors and Transport Scotland?
I think that they are, and they have been working increasingly well as we have gone through the contract. As I mentioned at the previous committee meeting, not too many properties are close to the works on the north side—although there are a lot of large-scale works to come in 2014—but the works on the south side are much closer to residents.
I can give you another example of where the residents have spoken to us at community forums and been in contact separately through correspondence. The Linn Mill residents in particular have been concerned about the works on Society Road, which, as David Climie mentioned, we delivered some three years earlier than was originally programmed.
The residents are pleased that we have done the new Society Road, which has a nice footpath and cycleway alongside it, but they want it to be extended to join in with the footpath at Linn Mill. After discussion with the City of Edinburgh Council, we have agreed to take that forward later in the project. We cannot do it now because there is a plant crossing there.
That is an example of good community engagement. We have listened to what the public have to say and we will deliver that extension to the footpath.
Okay. Thank you.
Will you provide an update on the operation of the M90 and M9 bus lanes and the associated gantries, and particularly the impacts on journey times and reliability?
Yes. David Climie has already mentioned in general the performance of the ITS and the bus lanes. One of the big things that happened over the past year is the opening of the Halbeath park and ride in November, and it is encouraging that usage of it is already starting to ramp up. The peak so far has been about 250 people a day parking there, which is a good general progression towards filling the capacity. That has also meant that there are more bus services in the vicinity of the project.
Use of the bus lanes has typically been some five to 10 buses in the morning peak period on the Fife ITS side of the project—the M90 southbound towards the Forth road bridge. As David Climie mentioned, that is likely to increase as usage of the buses from Halbeath increases. They have been able to jump the queues in the morning period when the congestion extends back. However, because the ITS smooths the traffic down, we have found that, although the traffic levels before and after the Fife ITS was complete are similar, the queues are a lot less. The saving of up to eight minutes means that the queueing is spread out, so usage of the bus lane has perhaps not been quite as prevalent as we might have expected.
The feature was always envisaged as temporary, and we will revisit it as a permanent feature once we have a feel for the usage and how the operation of the system progresses as we go through the project. How the infrastructure is helping with bus operations is mentioned a lot at our public transport working group meetings, and the message that comes back is that it is certainly helping.
On the south side of the project—junction 1A and the bus lane there—only about five buses use that section of the road network in the morning peak period. I think that most people are aware that there is a substantial problem on the approach to the Newbridge junction in the morning peak period, and the buses can easily jump that queue. I think that the savings are eight minutes from Echline to Newbridge in the morning peak period, so there is quite a reasonable saving for the buses. As bus growth happens and destinations change, there will be a lot more scope to use that bus lane.
I do not know how much further you want me to go into the detail.
The picture that you have given is helpful. It is clear that you want to keep the situation under review.
There have been reports that the intelligent transport system on the M90 has been successful in cutting the number of accidents. The figures that I have seen show a reduction from 12 to two, and they also show a reduction of five to eight minutes in average journey times.
That is correct. I emphasise that the data that we have is one year’s data after the opening. We will need to have at least three years’ data to form a valid, informed approach to whether the system has been a success.
With regard to accidents, you are right. Our information shows that, in the three-year period before Fife ITS opened, there was an average of 12 accidents per year; in the year since the system opened, there have been only two slight accidents—and it is arguable whether those were even in the scheme as they were right on the periphery. That bodes well for the use of such infrastructure in future, although the caveat is that we have only one year of data so far.
12:15
What further steps will you take to sustain that progress as the project moves forward?
We will continue to monitor all the data on traffic, journey reliability and accidents as we go through the project. When we reach the end and the full ITS corridor is open, we will monitor it and report on the before-and-after data to give a much more valid response. As I said, the initial data looks encouraging.
Can you use the ITS to encourage people who come in by car to use the park-and-ride facilities?
Yes, that is possible. Initially, the variable message signs indicated to people that Halbeath park and ride was open, and there is no reason why—as long as there is no valid need to indicate delays or that an incident has occurred elsewhere on the road network—the signs cannot be used to make the most of the Halbeath park and ride and Ferrytoll park and ride, which we will upgrade as part of our works later in the project.
It is looking pretty tired.
I will move on to subcontractors, suppliers and employees. Can you update us on the number of people who are currently employed on the project, including details of the number of professional trainees and apprentices?
Certainly. During January, the average number of people employed on the project was 953, and we expect that to increase progressively during the year as more and more activity is ramped up, particularly when the decks arrive and all the concrete is poured on at our facility in Rosyth. The number will go back up to the previous peak of 1,200 during the year.
Within that number, 224 staff are currently undertaking some type of Scottish vocational qualification training, of whom eight are undertaking modern apprenticeships. Of those modern apprenticeships, five are being run through Edinburgh College, two involve electricians—one in Edinburgh and one at Perth College—and one involves a welder from Fife College. We are looking at more opportunities to increase those numbers as we move forward.
We also have 45 professional trainees—graduates and so on who are training to become members of the Institution of Civil Engineers or the Institute of Highway Engineers—and 69 staff members who were formerly long-term unemployed.
The number of modern apprentices seems rather low. Given that the project is three years in, some apprentices should have almost completed their apprenticeships by now. Is that the case?
I would want to check that precise detail—I will ask the contractor and come back to the committee with a response on the exact status of the apprenticeships.
Surely, as you move into the continuous construction phase, there should be more opportunities to take on more apprentices. Are you looking at that?
Yes, that is certainly being looked at.
Given the size of the project, I would have thought that you would be able to take on more apprentices.
There is a balance between SVQ training and the modern apprenticeships. The SVQ numbers are very high, whereas the modern apprenticeships tend to have more structure and involve more of a long-term commitment. You are right—we are looking at that issue, and I will follow up on it and report back to you.
Thank you. At your previous appearance before the committee, you assured us that you were keeping a watching brief on the issue of blacklisting by contractors that are working on the project. Can you assure us that blacklisting has not been an issue in the past 12 months?
Yes, I can—absolutely.
Finally, payments to subcontractors are always an issue. Do you have any handle on that at all?
Our contract contains a clause that requires prompt payment to subcontractors. The Forth crossing bridge constructors consortium, which is our principal contractor, has to pay its subcontractors promptly, and if that is not happening they are able to contact us directly to let us know. To date, we are certain that FCBC is paying its subcontractors promptly.
You have not had any contact from subcontractors complaining about late payments.
No, we have not.
Okay. As members have no further questions, we will finish the session. Officials are currently discussing the committee’s proposed visit later in the spring, and we look forward to that very much. In the meantime, I thank both the witnesses.
We will move into private session as previously agreed.
12:20 Meeting continued in private until 12:41.Previous
Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1