The new Forth Replacement Crossing project has already delivered a £20 million early Christmas present to Scottish firms with more to come in a jobs boost for the country.
Overseeing work on the £1.6 billion ”on schedule, on budget” project at North Queensferry on Wednesday, Infrastructure and Capital Investment Minister Alex Neil hailed it as a massive boost for the workforce, industry and economy.
With over £20m worth of sub contracts awarded to 118 Scottish firms and another 134 sub contracts being advertised, Mr Neil said the entire five-year project the ”biggest civil engineering project in Europe” would give a welcome and significant bolster to the construction industry and the country as a whole.
It will bring around 1,500 new jobs and protect an estimated 3,000 more which, he said, may otherwise be at risk.
The British Chamber of Commerce estimated additional benefits through the supply chain and sub contract opportunities for Scottish businesses could be worth around £6 billion to the country’s economy. And the project could protect around £1.3 billion in revenues.
Mr Neil said he was delighted many Scottish firms have already reaped the benefits of the project.
”The project is expected to support over 1,200 new jobs during its construction and protect up to 3,000 Scottish jobs that would otherwise be at risk if the current Forth Road Bridge had to close without a replacement crossing in place,” he said.
”I believe a lot of Scottish companies are able to win these contracts as well. This is good news for people looking for a job. By any standards there will be a lot of work and jobs created.
”With the general state of the economy companies are looking for work and a lot of companies will benefit enormously. This is safeguarding jobs and creating jobs and expanding businesses.”
He added: ”The FRC is an absolutely essential project for Scotland’s sustainable economic growth.
”It is on schedule and within budget to open in 2016 and will safeguard a vital link in the country’s transport infrastructure, create and sustain thousands of Scottish jobs and deliver huge benefits to the construction industry in particular.
”Scotland’s economy is strengthening and continued progress on this project clearly demonstrates that the Scottish Government’s robust actions on capital investment and supporting jobs are delivering real results.”
Mr Neil said the project would probably bring in hundreds of millions over its five-year construction and the Government was doing all it could to ensure Scottish firms can compete effectively for these contracts.
While a contract couldn’t be awarded on the basis of the firm being local, he said many firms would be boosted just through their proximity to the bridge.
”At the end of the day it is a competitive theatre and you couldn’t award it just because it is a local company but in reality a lot of work is so local that companies do have an advantage of being local and on the doorstep.
”They are ideally placed to benefit from this work and it is a huge opportunity for them.”
Only days after the Forth Road Bridge was closed because of high winds, Mr Neil highlighted the planned crossing’s increased resilience to bad weather.
”One of the added benefits of the FRC will be its improved resilience compared to the existing Forth Road Bridge.
”The new crossing will incorporate state of the art wind-shielding to ensure it will remain open to traffic during the sort of extreme high winds that shut the road bridge earlier in December, meaning less diversions and disruption for motorists and the travelling public.
”This type of wind-shielding technology is used on the second Severn crossing which, to date, has never had to close due to wind and our expectation is that if the road network is functioning, the FRC will be open and operational.”
He added he knew from experience of having to close the bridge, and having traffic diverted to the Kincardine and Clackmannanshire bridges, that not having to close the new bridge would bring ”a huge economic boost”.