Work on city's bridges delayed until next year

Scheduled works on two Perth city centre bridges have been pushed back by a year each.

The works form part of the final phase of the £150m Cross Tay Link Road project.

A Perth City Centre councillor has raised concerns that the Perth City Centre Improvements phase is not forgotten.

A brief reference was made to the delays in an update on PKC’s six-year composite capital budget for 2024-2030 put before the Finance and Resources Committee on Wednesday, April 30.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Perth City Centre councillor Peter Barrett asked what the renewed timeline would be for the planned works on both the Old Perth Bridge and Queen’s Bridge.

PKC’s strategic lead for Environment and Infrastructure Fraser Crofts explained: “We’ve had some further staff turnover within the team unfortunately.”

“In terms of delivery of those two schemes, it’s been pushed back by one year each.”

Building work on the Old Perth Bridge has been postponed until 2026/27 and Queen’s Bridge until 2027/28.

Mr Crofts assured councillors there were “ongoing inspections” of both bridges in terms of safety.

Cllr Peter Barrett asked that this final phase “doesn’t get forgotten about”.

The Liberal Democrat councillor said: “Obviously, we have all been really pleased to see the completion of the Cross Tay Link Road and the reduction in traffic that that has created in the Scone Main Street, Old Perth Bridge, Atholl St corridor which is really welcome in terms of road safety for residents and amenity for shoppers.

“But I am concerned the final phase of Transport Futures’ Cross Tay Link Road (CTLR) project doesn’t get forgotten about. And are the staff shortages going to have an impact on delivering the environmental and road safety improvements in the Scone Main Street, Old Perth Bridge, Atholl St corridor area?”

Councillors were told the rollout of national initiatives, as well as staffing issues, had impacted the planned works taking place.

Mr Crofts said: “In terms of the majority of the work we agreed to undertake on the back of the CTLR that has been carried out. We continue to work through the programme as we go forward.

“Members will be aware of some other national initiatives that have come our way, not least the pavement parking ban and the 20mph rollout as well.

“But we will work and prioritise, within the resources that we have, to deliver on all fronts. To the best of my knowledge, we are pretty much back to capacity now across the Traffic and Network team.”