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Agenda item 4 is an update on the progress of the Forth replacement crossing project from the Transport Scotland project team. I thank the team for providing a written update in advance of the meeting, which members should have received with their papers. I welcome David Climie and Lawrence Shackman, who are project directors. Malcolm Chisholm will kick off our questions.
I have two specific questions, but perhaps the witnesses could start by providing a general update on the progress and timescale of the construction project.
Certainly. I am pleased to report that, in the six months since we last spoke to you, the project has progressed extremely well on all fronts, particularly on the principal contract. The caissons for the main tower foundations are now in place and the line of the bridge across the Forth can be clearly seen, including where the main towers will be and the approaches on either side.
That is helpful. The budget is pretty prominent in people’s minds, and you say that the project is on budget. That is good news. The range was stated to be between £1.45 billion and £1.6 billion. Do you have any idea where the final cost may lie within that range? If you do not, when might that become a bit clearer?
We monitor that on a monthly basis, and the item that changes most regularly is probably the inflation figure. When I reported here six months ago, the rate of inflation was towards the high end of our range. Since then, we have seen a significant downturn in the rate of inflation, which is typical of the global market generally, and the rate of inflation is now running at the low end of the envelope that we predicted. The longer that goes on, the lower is the figure for the baseline cost, which is then inflated further. At the moment, the best indication that we have is that we are still within that overall envelope but tending towards the lower end of it purely because of the way in which inflation is going.
Okay. Thanks. You have highlighted what has been going on during the past few months—thanks for that. Can you highlight any key events that are due to occur in the next six months that may be of interest to the Parliament?
Certainly. Given the way in which the smaller contracts have been progressing, we expect that the contact and education centre will be fully open to the public by the beginning of 2013. We also expect that the Fife ITS contract and the M9 junction 1A contract will both be completed and fully opened, which will allow bus hard-shoulder running to start operating throughout the scheme.
In the written update that you provided to the committee, you mentioned that a number of community forums were held last month in communities in Rosyth, South Queensferry and Kirkliston. You said:
Certainly. It was extremely unfortunate that the flooding occurred. Lawrence Shackman and then one of my other colleagues visited a couple of the householders who were affected by it, just to see for themselves what had gone on.
An action plan has been put in place by our contractor to manage rainfall events, including those of high intensity. As David Climie said, a lot more work has been done to mitigate the effect of any future events. A system of pumps is in place in that part of the site. Some quite deep excavations have been formed that can be used as sumps for water events, and moves have been put in play to establish a permanent outfall down towards the Forth, so we are pretty confident that we will be able to manage any similar future event.
Malcolm Chisholm asked you for an update on forthcoming key events. In a previous written update, you said that the permanent contact and education centre remained on schedule to be completed in autumn 2012. In the most recent update, you say:
It is not a delay; in effect, it is a phased opening. It is necessary to remember that there are two parts to the building. One part of it is the FRC contact and education centre, but two thirds of it will be the new Traffic Scotland control centre. By the end of November, we expect to have the CEC part of the building ready. We are organising an initial ministerial event, which will tie in with the launch of the bridge-naming process at the end of November, but we do not want to advertise that the CEC is fully open for bookings to the public and so on until January 2013, because we want to wait until work on the traffic control centre element of the building is well advanced.
Thanks very much for that clarification.
It is an area that we keep under constant review. A number of working groups and community forums have been set up, as required by the code of construction practice. We have a feedback loop in all of those to ensure that what we are doing is working and is delivering what was intended in the code of construction practice. The feedback on all the groups that we have had so far has been extremely positive. For example, on the noise liaison group, we had contact from members of the public asking how the feedback worked and how it was taken into account in noise liaison group meetings.
That is good to hear, thank you.
David, you mentioned the naming of the new bridge. Has there been a lot of public engagement in terms of making suggestions for the new name?
There has been public engagement, some of it a little ahead of the formal process. When it was first announced that there would be a process, a number of suggestions inevitably appeared in the press.
The refreshed public transport strategy was published on 1 August—can you outline the key changes in the strategy document compared with the one that was published in 2010?
We have been working well with the local authorities, SEStran and bus operators—we will also be involving Network Rail. As you mentioned, the strategy was refreshed at the beginning of August. Looking at all the options in the Forth corridor, which is essentially Newbridge in the south right up to Halbeath in the north, and how we can influence public transport usage in that corridor, one way is to keep going with the group that we have, which meets every six months—our next meeting is in November.
You mentioned influencing transport usage. Can you update us on whether any work has been undertaken on possible improvements to the cycle tracks linking the Forth road bridge and Edinburgh?
Not at this moment in time—it is something that we will look at later with the City of Edinburgh Council. One of the big pluses in terms of public transport since we last gave evidence to the committee is that the contract for the Halbeath park and ride has been awarded and construction has started on site. That is a big positive in terms of being able to take car traffic off the M90 corridor and put people in buses.
The written update refers to a barley field over which the Halbeath park-and-ride project will be built. What has been done to reduce the environmental impact of the construction at the Halbeath site?
I do not wish to sidestep that too much, but the project is being taken forward by Fife Council. Obviously, the Scottish Government has made a contribution to the park-and-ride site, but Fife Council is taking it forward. I believe that the council will look carefully at any environmental aspect to minimise any disruption to the local farmers and to the travelling public when access is taken off the Crossgates roundabout.
Okay, thank you.
Good morning. My question is about subcontractors, suppliers and employees. You indicated in the written update that 60 per cent of the subcontractor opportunities and 87 per cent of the principal contract supply opportunities have gone to Scottish companies. Can you confirm the proportion of the total expenditure on subcontractor and supply opportunities that those figures represent?
Yes. In the written update we gave the numbers in terms of quantity, but I can also provide the information about value. For the subcontracts, the amount going to Scottish firms is £31 million, and on the supply orders, the value for Scottish companies is £41 million. That gives a total of £72 million that has been awarded to Scottish firms.
Thank you. You also indicated that 1,100 people are now working directly on the FRC project. Can you provide a breakdown of who those people are, with an indication of, in particular, how many were previously unemployed and how many are apprentices or trainees?
Yes, I can. As you will be aware, we had specific requirements in the principal contract to deliver an annual average target of 45 vocational training places, 21 professional body training places and 46 places for long-term unemployed people. As of the end of August, we have on the site 41 vocational training places, 46 professional body training places and 56 places for long-term unemployed people, which is a grand total of 143. That is what we expected in the early stages. At the moment there is still quite a large focus on design. The professional body training places are roughly double the target, whereas the vocational training places are just coming up to the annual average number that we expected at this point. As we go forward, we would expect to see the professional numbers dropping and the vocational numbers ramping up and potentially being significantly higher than the target.
Can you clarify the difference between vocational training and professional body training?
Yes. A vocational training place is at a minimum of Scottish vocational qualification level 2. A modern apprenticeship would be at SVQ level 3, so that is a higher level of training. A professional body training place involves someone training to become a chartered engineer, a chartered surveyor or something like that, and therefore a member of a recognised professional body.
That is lovely—thank you.
We will move on to traffic management. Can you summarise the impact of current traffic management measures on journey times and traffic flows?
Yes. There are important high-level points to make first. As I said earlier on the Fife ITS project, all the traffic management on the M90 has now been removed, so there is no impact north of the bridge. It will be at least a year or a year and a half before any new traffic management comes on to the main line on the M90 in the Ferrytoll area, so there will be a good break on the north side from impact on travel.
As David Climie said, junction 1A is the key area of activity at the moment for traffic management. The distances involved, whether people are coming southbound down the M9 spur approaching the new junction works or from the Stirling direction on the M9, mean that people will have only an extra couple of minutes on their journey time, given that the maximum speed will be 40mph as opposed to 70mph. Obviously, in the mornings people do not normally go at 70mph anyway in that area because it is pretty busy. That is the impact that the works are having at the moment.
So the Fife ITS was completed on time and you took off the restrictions when you said that you would.
That is right, yes.
If I remember correctly, you told me that the extra journey time would be something like 3 minutes.
That is correct.
Were you able to keep to that?
Yes.
In the written update, you also indicated that major works to upgrade the M9 will commence later this month. What impact do you expect those to have on traffic flow, given that you have perhaps learned from the Fife ITS experience? What measures have you taken to mitigate any traffic congestion or delays?
In a similar vein to the approach that we took to the works on the Fife ITS, we will advise people not to make journeys at the weekends if they do not need to, because there will be some disruption. We will try to provide access through the M9 as far as possible, but because of the way that the works need to be undertaken some sections of the road will need to be closed and diversion routes put in place. They will be very well signed and very well publicised, and we will use the same media that we used with the Fife ITS work to try to warn people as far ahead as possible. In particular, variable message signs on the motorway network will be used to warn people in advance. The upshot of the works will be that the carriageway should last for a good number of years. There should be no need to go back for perhaps 15 years as a result of the way that we are doing the works.
When the contractor initially started planning the work it thought that it could take as long as 10 weekends. We have put a lot of work into that with the contractor to get it down to the six that we are currently advertising, and we believe that it may still be possible to improve on that. We have had to take into account the effect of traffic management on the travelling public. There is a noise issue; because we are close to Kirkliston we want to try to minimise the impact of that when working at weekends. A balance needs to be struck between the local residents and the impact on the travelling public, so a lot of work has gone into trying to get the best possible compromise and take all the views into account.
When the Fife ITS goes live later this year, what will it involve and what effect will it have on the travelling public and traffic flow?
When the Fife ITS goes live we will be able to use the overhead gantries and the lane signalling that are incorporated into it. That means that we will be able to vary the speed limits and manage the traffic flow. As David Climie mentioned, initially there will be no traffic management south of the Fife ITS project, because the principal contractors are not going to do any work on the A90 in that area. The system will come into its own when the major works start to take place later, at the end of 2013. The ITS may also be used for managing any back-up of traffic caused by works on the Forth road bridge, for example. It is very much a non-critical activity, in terms of the project. We will be able to get the bus lane running on the Fife ITS. If there is any congestion, the buses will be able to use the hard shoulders, which are designated bus lanes but which can be used by all traffic in an emergency. A good piece of infrastructure is in place that can cater for all the works to come.
The largest single benefit is that bus hard shoulder running will come into operation all the way from Halbeath to the north end of the existing Forth road bridge. At peak times, when traffic can queue on the north side of the Forth road bridge, it should be far more possible to guarantee journey times for public transport—for buses—than it is at present.
We will also have a publicity leaflet for road users, to explain how the ITS system will work and what to look out for with the bus lane operation. As a separate exercise, we will have a training session with the bus operators, so that all their drivers know how to use the bus hard shoulder. The training will cover what to do if there is an incident—how the hard shoulder will close down—and the general operation of the new system so that everyone is as aware as they can be of what they should and should not do when it is in place.
At your next six-monthly update, will you be able to tell us how the ITS is working?
Yes.
Do you feel that you have to put up signs on the gantries, even though there is really nothing to say? I object to being told not to do this or that. Could you put “please” and perhaps a smiley face to make the signs a bit nicer?
In Europe, they just put up the time. That is useful.
As there are no more questions, I thank the panel for coming. I look forward to another update in six months’ time.