Aerial view of A876 - Kincardine Bridge
The existing Kincardine Bridge opened in 1936 and at the time was the furthest-downstream road link across the Forth Estuary, reducing the travel distance from Edinburgh to Dunfermline by 20 miles. The bridge remains the furthest-downstream all-weather crossing of the Forth, and acts as a diversionary route during bad weather when the Forth Road Bridge is closed to high-sided vehicles.
The existing bridge consists of a number of different structural elements, with the southern viaduct at present temporarily propped and requiring substantial refurbishment in the medium term. To undertake this refurbishment work without an alternative crossing of the Forth at Kincardine would result in substantial disruption to users of the Trunk Road network as traffic would need to divert to Stirling Bridge or the Forth Road Bridge, resulting in significant economic disbenefits.
The existing bridge carries around 24,000 vehicles per day of which a high proportion are heavy goods vehicles. All the traffic currently goes through the centre of Kincardine with consequential environmental and social impacts upon the residents of the village.
The existing bridge and the junction within Kincardine struggle to cope with the traffic volumes and this leads to severe congestion in the peak periods on the approach roads of the A985, A977 and A876, and safety concerns for both the travelling public and the residents of Kincardine.
The ecology of the Forth Estuary is of international importance, having been designated a Special Protection Area (SPA) under the European Habitat and Birds Directive. The saltmarsh and mudflats of the Estuary at Kincardine are very high quality bird-feeding grounds that attract a number of species of over wintering and migratory birds.
Over the past 10 years, a number of different road and bridge options, both upstream and downstream of the existing bridge, have been considered to address the problems at Kincardine. The results of these studies concluded that the preferred solution was a new upstream crossing at Kincardine that has the least impact on the SPA, together with refurbishment of the existing bridge and a southern bypass of the village – Kincardine Eastern Link Road.
Kincardine Bridge
This ‘twin bridge strategy’ which makes best use of the existing infrastructure, will ensure that all westbound and eastbound traffic will be removed from the village of Kincardine; improving the environment for residents, transforming transport links in the Forth Valley area and further opening up the area to economic benefits, whilst still ensuring the minimum impact on the environmentally sensitive sites in the local.
The Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning announced the preferred route in December 2002.
