To understand the impact of the sudden closure of the Forth Road Bridge for emergency repairs, try and imagine Greater London losing access to the M25 and all of the changes in travel patterns that it has created over the past 30 years. The opening of the 1.5mile suspension bridge on 4 September 1964 triggered a transformation of the communities either side of the Firth of Forth to the point today where Dunfermline, Dalgety Bay and other parts of west and central Fife to the north of the Forth have developed into commuter suburbs of Edinburgh to the south. The M90 also funnels heavy volumes of longer distance traffic connecting northern and north-eastern Scotland with the Central Belt, Borders and northern England. Designed to carry 30,000 vehicles a day in each direction, it has been handling more than twice that number in recent years. Not just buses and cars, but increasingly heavy lorries too.
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