Rio Jordan & Lewis Mcpartlin | Reporters
On the 4th of September the new Queensferry crossing, one of the three bridges that cross the Firth of Forth, accompanying the Forth and Forth Road bridge – was officially opened by the Queen.
However, the bridge has been opened to traffic since the 30th of August. There is a ballot held in areas near the Firth of Forth to decide what the name of the bridge would be, and 250,000 people voted. The majority of voters voted for the bridge to be called Queensferry crossing. 50, 000 of the voters were selected to cross the bridge on foot on the second of September, before it was officially opened today.
The Bridge cost £1.35 billion to build and was built due to high congestion on the other two bridges. There were proposals to build it back in the 1990’s, but nothing was proceeded with.
It wasn’t until 2005 when the Forth Road bridge started to have structural faults due to so many cars crossing that they proceeded with plans to build the Queensferry crossing. The bridge received approval to build in 2007 and it wasn’t until September 2011 that construction started.
The bridge is now an image of national pride and is looked upon as one of Scotland’s finest engineering achievements of the decade. Here’s hoping it will empower the movement of traffic, not just a movement in people’s hearts.
