The new £1.35 billion Queensferry Crossing will not open until between mid-July and the end of August, it has been announced.

Speaking to the Parliament's REC Committee today, 29 March, Economy Secretary Keith Brown confirmed the structure will open around four to 10 weeks later than expected.

The blame has been put down to there being fewer clear weather windows than expected, particularly in relation to wind. This has delayed weather dependant activities, causing them to clog together at the end of the construction programme to a much greater degree than was anticipated in May last year.

Weather dependent works include moving the tower cranes, which can only be removed in wind speeds of below 25mph. Even when this is happening, it is not possible to carry out safety work in a 50 metre radius of the machine itself.

Other weather affected phases include work on cable stays, waterproofing the bridge deck and road surfacing.

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With lots of construction activity underway at the same time, Mr Brown emphasised it is important to "take the time to make sure the bridge is built in the safest possible circumstances to the highest possible standards".

"Today there are only nine weeks remaining to the end of May and the review has concluded that even with the best weather this date is not now safely achievable," he said.

"I fully recognise the effort of the workforce in building this amazing new bridge. Over 13 million hours have gone into building the Queensferry Crossing over the past six years.

"There is no additional cost to the public purse and the Forth Road Bridge continues to carry traffic over the Forth during these final weeks of construction. While its clearly very disappointing the new bridge won't be ready ahead of the contractual completion date, I believe it is important to take the time to make sure the bridge is built in the safest possible circumstances to the highest possible standards."

Sally Cox, chair of the Board for the Forth Road Crossing Bridge Constructors (FCBC), the consortium behind the project, said: "FCBC acknowledge that the uniqueness of this project and the onerous weather conditions it has experienced, particularly working at height crossing the Forth have created more challenges than we anticipated.

"FCBC have always been and remain ambitious about completing this challenging project at the earliest possible date and share Transport Scotland and the public's frustration over this delay. We have assured Transport Scotland that every endeavour is and will continue to be made, to safely complete the project at the earliest opportunity."

(LM/MH)