Queensferry Crossing, UK: network connection structures – design and construction

Abstract

Connection of the new Queensferry Crossing in Scotland (UK) into the existing highway networks each side of the Forth estuary has required design and construction of a large number of technically complex structures. This paper describes the technical challenges involved and how multiple constraints were accommodated in design and construction. In particular, Ferrytoll viaduct is a highly skewed bridge with trapezoidal steel box girders and an innovative substructure solution. This structure was a rationalisation of a larger viaduct that had been detailed in the specimen design, a change which yielded significant benefits to cost, programme, landscape and environment. Other network structures include a range of steel composite structures, pretensioned beam structures, retaining walls and modifications to retained existing structures.