Queensferry Crossing ice solution 'will take time'

MSPs have been told it will take time to find a permanent solution to prevent ice from building up on the Queensferry Crossing.

Mark Arndt from the Amey Forth Bridge Operating Company said work was being carried out to discover “permanent viable solutions” to the problem – which resulted in the £1.35bn crossing being closed to all vehicles for two days.

The bridge was shut to traffic after ice that had built up in wintry weather conditions fell from the cables, damaging eight vehicles.

Ms Arndt said: “We are also actively looking for permanent viable solutions to mitigating ice forming in the first place, that will take time through research and development and the like.”

He spoke as MSPs on Holyrood’s rural rconomy and connectivity committee questioned Transport Secretary Michael Matheson and bridge officials about the closure.

Mr Arndt said “various options” were being considered, including the possibility of coating the cable sheaths on the crossing with a hydrophobic material to repel water or installing heating mechanisms.

Mr Matheson told the committee: “There isn’t an off-the-shelf solution for bridges that experience this problem.

“International experience would say that very often they have to look for bespoke methods in order to address this, specific to the bridge and the circumstances they are experiencing.”

He told how problems arose last week when a “squall of sleet, icy weather was coming in”, resulting in ice building up on the bridge and then falling off the cables “very quickly”.

The Transport Secretary has already announced ice sensors are being installed on the crossing in the coming months to help detect any build-up.

But with the problem having also affected the crossing in March 2019, he hit back at suggestions that little had been done.

While the issue of ice build-up only happens in a “very limited weather environment” Mr Matheson said a “significant level of work” had been carried out since the problem was first identified.

The Transport Secretary added while the closure of the bridge was “unexpected and most unwanted”, engineers had used the period to “better understand the circumstances that give rise to this problem”.

Committee convener Edward Mountain pointed out that problems with ice had occurred on similar bridges in countries such as Canada, Norway, Sweden, Japan and the US, as he questioned why ice sensors had not been included in the original specification for the Queensferry Crossing.

Laurence Shackman, the Queensferry Crossing project manager for the design and construction phase, said at the time the plans were being drawn up “there wasn’t any common ideal solution to get rid of the problem”.