Transport Scotland expects to have bids for the estimated $2-billion cable-stayed bridge over the Firth of Forth waterway in hand by the end of January. The agency aims to award by April the 66-month, lump-sum design-build contract for the Forth Replacement Waterway Project.

Photo: Transport Scotland

The new Forth Replacement Waterway Project, when complete in 2016, will be the third major crossing over the Firth of Forth, near Edinburgh. Shown: The Forth Road Bridge, completed in the mid-1960s.

Two teams of contractors were invited to bid for the fixed-price contract on Dec. 17, say Transport Scotland officials. Nearly 40 companies expressed interest in bidding after procurement started in June 2009.

The first of the two teams is the Forthspan consortium of London-based firms Balfour Beatty Construction Ltd., BAM Nuttal Ltd., Morgan Sindall Ltd. and Denmark’s MT Hojgaard A/S, Soborg.

The rival Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors includes Spain’s Dragados S.A., Madrid, Hochtief A.G., Essen, Germany, Morrison Construction Ltd., Edinburgh, and American Bridge International, Coraopolis, Pa.

The 1.68-mile-long road bridge will include two nearly half-mile main spans with overlapping cable fans reaching down from two centrally placed pylons. The pylons will rise more than 450 ft above the deck. The conceptual design was created by a team of Arup Group, London, and Jacobs U.K. Ltd., Edinburgh. When completed in 2016, the crossing will join iconic 19th- and 20th-Century structures as the third major crossing over the lower Forth.