The team behind the Queensferry Crossing is confident every opportunity will be taken to ensure it will open by the end of the year.
While work is highly weather-dependent, the project director for Transport Scotland, David Climie, said the Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors Consortium was still on target to open the new bridge this December.
At an event yesterday he revealed the cost of the crossing has fallen, now standing between £1.325 and £1.35 billion.
Mr Climie said: “When we started out we thought it was a fairly ambitious target to get it open by the end of 2016 but we are still confident we will get there.
“Much of that confidence is down to the willingness of the workforce currently there are 1,287 staff members employed there to grasp every window in the weather to make progress.”
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Mr Climie said last Monday’s bad weather had slowed down construction.
However, a lull was forecast around teatime so everything was put in place to be ready to lift another deck section from a waiting barge and into position.
“Every time the weather allows us to make progress, we do,” Mr Climie said.
“We cannot guarantee we get the opportunity but we can guarantee when the opportunity is there we will take it.”
Some 34 out of 110 deck segments for the crossing are in place and the north viaduct is set to join up to the deck jutting from the north tower this spring.
Both Mr Climie and project director Michael Martin claimed there was no added pressure on the project in the wake of defects being found in the Forth Road Bridge last year.
Mr Martin said parts for the new crossing were being manufactured under strict quality controls.
He added: “From a corrosion point of view they are significantly better protected than the wires in the suspension bridge.”
Meanwhile, Mr Martin rejected recent allegations that 350 tonnes of concrete had been dumped in the Forth.
An investigation found a piece of equipment had broken down causing around one tonne to be discharged.
“That should not have happened,” he said.