Forth Replacement Crossing - Report 1 - Assessment of Transport Network

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND

Jacobs and Faber Maunsell were commissioned by Transport Scotland to undertake the Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR) study. The STPR commission involves identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the Scottish strategic transport network, identifying gaps between the future demand and capacity of the network, and producing a prioritised list of interventions for the period 2012-22. The commission also covers a study of the Forth Replacement Crossing. This element of the work will be reported as follows:

• Report 1: Network Performance;
• Report 2: Gaps and Shortfalls;
• Report 3: Option Generation and Sifting;
• Report 4: Appraisal Report; and
• Report 5: Final Report

This is the first of these reports, Network Performance. The description of the aims of this report in the Brief for this Study is included in Appendix A.

The objective of this element of the Study is to:

• propose a set of relevant and well-defined performance measures that shall be used to establish the current, and forecast future, base conditions on the transport network on and around the Forth road and rail bridges, for example, route reliability and average journey times;
• identify the most reliable baseline study of the origins, destinations, purposes, and modes of journeys made on the transport network on and around the existing Forth road and rail bridges;
• with reference to the agreed performance measures, assess the current performance of the transport network on and around the Forth road and rail bridges; and
• with reference to the agreed performance measures, forecast the performance of the transport network on and around the Forth road and rail bridges, for 2012, 2017, and 2022.

It should be noted that this report includes forecasts for 2012, 2017 and 2022. These forecast years will be updated in a subsequent addendum, as forecasts for 2012, 2017 and 2022 from the Transport Model for Scotland were not available in time for inclusion.

Although it focuses primarily on the existing condition and operation of the Forth Road Bridge it also covers the immediate road network as well as the rail bridge and network.

1.2 STRUCTURE OF REPORT

Following this introductory chapter, the remainder of this report is set out as follows:

• chapter two covers the condition of the existing road bridge;
• chapter three briefly provides a summary of the supporting road network;
• chapter four describes the current condition of the Rail Bridge and Network and highlights improvements which are envisaged in the near future;
• chapter five outlines the environmental constraints located with the study area;
• chapter six provides a comprehensive summary of usage of the Forth Road Bridge and the Forth Bridge. It highlights the effects that growth in traffic levels are having on peak period congestion and crowding. It also proposes the required performance measures, and identifies gaps in the data currently available; and
• finally, chapter seven looks to the future and forecasts how existing conditions might be expected to change. This work has been informed from an analysis of outputs from the Transport Model for Scotland (TMfS).

It should be noted that chapter two has been prepared using knowledge of the Forth Road Bridge together with publicly available technical papers¹. A meeting was held with FETA on 9 November 2006 to discuss the condition of the Forth Road Bridge and comments arising from the meeting have been incorporated in this report.