Transport minister on Queensferry Crossing closure

One vehicle was damaged and transport chiefs took the "safety first" decision to shut the bridge at 10.20am on Saturday - with M90 traffic diverted onto the Forth Road Bridge - and it re-opened just before 1.50am on Sunday.

The process to open up an alternative route used to take up to six hours but thanks to the new automated barriers it now takes around 15 minutes to move vehicles away from the Queensferry Crossing.

And it looks like they'll be needed in wintry weather as, despite trying a number of measures to tackle the problem, Scottish transport secretary Fiona Hyslop admitted: "We can't necessarily fix the problems that's caused by the combination of humidity and ice."

The Queensferry Crossing re-opened in the early hours of Sunday morning. (Image: Newsquest) READ MORE: Law firm to represent families after childminder charged with 'cruelty'

The problem arises when wet snow sticks to the cables and then freezes. It's not unique to this country with other bridges around the world experiencing similar issues.

Dave Bishop, Bear Scotland’s South East unit bridges manager, said: "The safety of bridge users comes first, and we therefore made the decision to temporarily close the Queensferry Crossing when we identified ice falling from the cable stays and towers.

"One vehicle was damaged. The diversion over the Forth Road Bridge using the recently installed, fully automated barriers went well."

Due to its design, the £1.35 billion Queensferry Crossing has never closed due to high winds - a regular issue with the Forth Road Bridge - but this is the fourth time it has shut due to the risk of ice falling from the cables since the Queen officially opened it in September 2017.

Mr Bishop said: "Ours is a very short duration issue - and nowhere throughout the world has developed a solution to this issue.

"The conclusion we've come to is there's no easy way to prevent ice sticking to the cables that isn't more disruptive to road users than allowing it to happen and diverting the traffic to the Forth Road Bridge."

"We haven't had an event like that in over three years."

The bridge closed for the first time in February 2020 - for two days - after falling chunks of ice created dangerous conditions and caused damage to eight vehicles.

Strips of frozen snow up to a metre across fell more than 100 metres onto the carriageway below.

The Queensferry Crossing has been closed on four occasions due to the risk of ice falling from the cables. (Image: Newsquest) The then co-leader of Fife Council, David Ross, said at the time: “I am seeking firm assurances that this problem is being taken seriously and that action will be taken to prevent the problem occurring in the future.

“Given that it’s not unusual for Scotland to experience periods of freezing and snowy weather, I want to know if this was taken into consideration in the design of the bridge.”

Cars had also been hit by falling ice, although the bridge was not closed, in March 2019.

The same problem saw the Queensferry Crossing shut in December 2020 and again in January 2021, with traffic diverted to the Kincardine Bridge.

Weather sensors were installed in 2021 and in 2022 Bear Scotland undertook three months of work to jet-wash all 288 stay cables on all three towers to try and prevent ice building up.

Mr Bishop said this week: "Although we think the cleaning would have helped in the incident in Saturday, we didn't expect it to be fully effective, and that's why as well as the cleaning of the cables, we've been planning for a diversion over the Forth Road Bridge."

Transport Scotland had previously explained that there was no option that would completely prevent the build up of ice on the cables.