Boat strike protection worth £17m is being added to the Tay Road Bridge.

Bosses at the Tay crossing plan to place sheet piling and concrete round certain bridge piers so that a vessel would bounce off them rather than strike the supports.

Tay Bridge manager John Crerar said: "Most of the vessels go through the four navigation spans up to Perth and back down again, so these spans in the middle of the bridge are most at risk.

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"So, we've concluded that we need to put in pier protection measures to stop the vessels striking the actual piers.

"Internationally there have been various things that have happened on bridges and that's obviously focussed people's attention onto potential problems."

"The risk is low. I can assure the public that the bridge itself is not in any danger of falling down and these are all protective measures," Mr Crerar added.

Work is expected to be complete in 2012.

(GK/JM)