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| New Forth bridge will not open on time | New Forth bridge will not open on time |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The new £1.35bn bridge across the Forth will not be open on time, the Scottish government has confirmed. | |
| The Queensferry Crossing was scheduled to be completed by December this year but that deadline will not be met. | The Queensferry Crossing was scheduled to be completed by December this year but that deadline will not be met. |
| Keith Brown, the cabinet secretary for the economy, said the delay had been caused by "adverse weather conditions" in April and May. | |
| He said he planned to provide a statement to the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday afternoon. | |
| Mr Brown said the contractor, Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors (FCBC), had advised Transport Scotland that it was unable to achieve a target opening date of December 2016. | |
| In response to a question from Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Murdo Fraser, the minister said the bad weather "exceeded expectations" and resulted in an increase in the number of days lost to the weather. | |
| Work was also halted in April when a 60-year-old worker was killed on the site. | |
| Contractors remains on schedule to complete the project ahead of the contractual completion date - six months later. | |
| Mr Brown added: "The contractors have taken additional steps to mitigate on-going weather impacts and have provided a revised timetable for completion to Transport Scotland and Scottish ministers." | |
| In February, Transport Scotland said the project was scheduled to finish "on time and under budget". | |
| But earlier this week, in the wake of newspaper reports that the opening of the bridge could be delayed, the transport agency would not give a completion date. | |
| Instead, it said FCBC was "making every effort to open the bridge as soon as possible". |