Maintenance of the Forth Road Bridge

In this presentation, co-hosted with IStructE, Barry Colford, Chief Engineer and Bridgemaster of the Forth Road Bridge (FRB) in Scotland discusses operation and maintenance works carried out on the FRB over the past 15 years ensuring its structural integrity for its remaining service life.

Having recently celebrated its 50th anniversary the FRB now transports over 25 million vehicles per year and is a vital link in Scotland’s strategic road network. However, the operation and maintenance costs of large cable supported bridges such as the FRB are often underestimated by those funding their initial construction. It would also appear that new design and construction of large cable supported bridges are still undertaken without much reference to those who have the experience of maintaining and operating them. These are some of the topics which will be covered in this presentation.

Presenter:
Barry Colford, Chief Engineer and Bridgemaster, Forth Road Bridge.

Barry is a Chartered Civil Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He has written a number of technical papers on bridge engineering and is a member of the UK Bridges Board and Bridge Owners Forum as well as being involved in MEng and MSc courses in both Edinburgh University and Edinburgh Napier University.