Open Week Programme

Exhibition

A special exhibition is being staged in the bridge office on the history of the Forth Road Bridge and its maintenance challenges. This features a combination of photography, text, videos and artefacts contributed by FETA and its contractors and consultants.

The exhibition will be open to the public from 12:00 until 20:00 from Monday 13 until Thursday 16 June, and from 09:00 until 16:30 on Saturday 18 June. Admission is free.

Discounted boat trips

Every visitor to the open week exhibition will receive a £5 discount voucher for a cruise on the pleasure boat Forth Belle. For details of boat trip timings please visit the Forth Belle website.

Minibus tours

Minibus tours of the bridge are now fully booked. However, a stand-by system will operate on Saturday 18 June for any spaces that become available. Tours will run every 15 minutes throughout the day.

Saturday 18 June

A programme of special events has been organised for Saturday 18 June:

• A 1964 vintage bus will run trips across the bridge every half hour.
• Two miniature buses and a miniature fire engine will provide rides in the car park for children.
• George McPhie & Sons, from Linlithgow, will provide live demonstrations every hour of the recovery of an overturned tanker.
• Mines Rescue, from Crossgates, Fife, will provide live demonstrations of rescuing an individual from a confined space.
• A range of the Authority’s vehicles will be on display and members of the public will be able to view the bridges from height on the Authority’s Mobile Elevating Work Platform (MEWP).
• Fishers Tours will provide a free shuttle service to North Queensferry to allow visitors to take advantage of discounted boat trips on the Forth Belle.
• A bouncy castle and face-painting will be available for kids.
• The drum band Resonate, from Kirkcaldy, will perform at the event.
• Almost 300 members of the public will tour the bridge by minibus over the course of the day.

Admission is free – members of the public will be invited to make a donation to charity instead.

Charity

Forth Road Bridge staff were asked to nominate charities to support during the open week. Most nominations went to the Mary Leishman Foundation, which aims to encourage potential and ease distress by donating funds to a range of local good causes.  The Mary Leishman Foundation will therefore be the official charity of the 2011 Forth Road Bridge Open Week and will receive all money raised during the open week itself.

Over £4,000 has already been raised for charity through the auction of tower trips to be taken during the open week.

Sponsorship

The three main sponsors of the 2011 Forth Road Bridge Open Week are Atkins, C Spencer Ltd and Techspan Systems. Generous support has also been received from Fairhurst & Partners, Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering, Raynesway Construction and Miller Callaghan.