The Forth Estuary Transport Authority (FETA) was the authority responsible for the maintenance of the Forth Road Bridge over the

Firth of Forth The Firth of Forth () is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife on the north coast and Lothian on the south. Name ''Firth'' is a cognate of ''fjord'', a Norse word meani ...

in eastern central Scotland. FETA was created in 2001 by the

Transport (Scotland) Act 2001 Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, and ...

- to replace the Forth Road Bridge Joint Board.

Remit

The Forth Estuary Transport Authority was formed in 2001, with a wider remit than the Forth Road Bridge Joint Board it replaced. It was able to fund road and public transport improvements to aide crossing the Firth of Forth, and its new powers permitted it to include the use of routes other than the Forth Road Bridge, such as using the Firth of Forth itself for

hovercraft A hovercraft, also known as an air-cushion vehicle or ACV, is an amphibious Craft (vehicle), craft capable of travelling over land, water, mud, ice, and other surfaces. Hovercraft use blowers to produce a large volume of air below the hull ...

services between Fife and Lothian.

Organisation

The board of FETA had ten members, allocated as follows: * four to the City of Edinburgh * four to

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

Council * one to the

Perth and Kinross Perth and Kinross ( sco, Pairth an Kinross; gd, Peairt agus Ceann Rois) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland and a Lieutenancy Area. It borders onto the Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Clackmannanshire, Dundee, Fife, Highland and S ...

Council * one to

West Lothian West Lothian ( sco, Wast Lowden; gd, Lodainn an Iar) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and was one of its shires of Scotland, historic counties. The county was called Linlithgowshire until 1925. The historic county was bounded geogra ...

Council

History of significant operations

The Forth Road Bridge underwent a comprehensive structural survey between 2003 and 2005 after

suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...

s of similar design and age in the United States were found to be suffering from corrosion in their main suspension cables. The survey results showed significant corrosion and an accompanying loss in strength of between 8 and 10% in the cables on the Forth Bridge. The rate of corrosion and weakening of the main cables would have required the bridge to close to HGV traffic some time around 2014 and then close to all traffic by 2019, so plans were drawn up to build a replacement crossing, to run parallel to the existing road bridge between

Lothian Lothian (; sco, Lowden, Loudan, -en, -o(u)n; gd, Lodainn ) is a region of the Scottish Lowlands, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills and the Moorfoot Hills. The principal settlement is the Sco ...

and

. Dehumidification equipment was installed to remove moisture from the inside of the main suspension cables, in an attempt to slow or halt the corrosion, but with no guarantee of success, the Forth Estuary Transport Authority and Scottish Government were left with no option but to plan the construction of a new crossing. Dehumidification work on the Forth Road Bridge was successful in halting the corrosion of the main cables, so there is now no requirement to close the existing Forth Road Bridge to traffic. The Forth Road Bridge will, as a result, be incorporated into the road network alongside the new bridge, the

Queensferry Crossing The Queensferry Crossing (formerly the Forth Replacement Crossing) is a road bridge in Scotland. It was built alongside the existing Forth Road Bridge and carries the M90 motorway across the Firth of Forth between Edinburgh, at South Queensfer ...

, and will provide a dedicated public transport crossing, remaining available as a diversionary route in the event the new bridge has to be closed.

Closure

The Scottish Government put out to tender a contract for the operation and maintenance of the existing road bridge and new

(the rail bridge remaining under the ownership and control of Network Rail). The successful bidder was

Amey plc Amey plc, previously known as Amey Ltd and Amey Roadstone Construction, is a United Kingdom-based infrastructure support service provider. Amey was founded by William Charles Amey in 1921. The firm grew rapidly during the Second World War via g ...

who would take over maintenance work in 2015. The Forth Bridges Operating Company (the legal title for the incoming private operator) inherited staff from the Forth Estuary Transport Authority, and transferred over under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006. The Forth Bridges Operating Company will then be responsible for the maintenance of the Forth Road Bridge, the Queensferry Crossing and the approach roads to the north and south; the M90 from Junction 3, Halbeath, through to Junction 1A, Kirkliston. The Forth Estuary Transport Authority was disbanded on 31 May 2015.http://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/uploads/docs/report/2015/fa_1415_forth_transport.pdf

References

{{Transport in Edinburgh Transport in Fife Transport in Edinburgh Defunct bodies of the Scottish government Defunct transport organisations based in the United Kingdom