MINISTERS PLAN to slash more than £1 billion off the cost of the new Forth road bridge in a bid to save vital public services as the recession deepens.

The Courier understands that a line-by-line revision of the costs has taken place in a bid to dramatically reduce the price to the taxpayer of what will be Scotland’s biggest construction project.

Although the price tag is set to be much reduced, it is believed that the specification—including scope for future multi-modal options—will be retained.

It is also believed that ministers have accepted that the existing Forth road bridge will remain open once the new bridge has been built, creating twin road crossings of the estuary between Fife and the Lothians.

An announcement is due before MSPs break for the Christmas recess on December 18.

Last December the Scottish Government unveiled bold plans for a new a cable-stayed bridge over the Forth costing between £3.25 billion and £4.22 billion.

It was planned to take around five-and-a-half years to build and would open in 2016 but the dramatic downturn in the economy has forced ministers to look again at the cost of the project.

This week finance secretary John Swinney warned of £1 billion cuts to Scottish public services as a direct result of announcements made in Chancellor Alistair Darling’s pre-budget statement.

The cuts, which he said “poses a real threat to vital public services in Scotland”, would kick in in 2010/11—just as the costs for the new bridge start to mount up.

The other factor that has influenced ministers’ thinking is the condition of the existing road bridge. When the decision to build a new bridge was announced last December, it was believed the existing one might have to close to heavy goods vehicles in 2013 because of corrosion of the main cables.

However, the Forth Estuary Transport Authority (FETA) is now confident no weight restrictions will be required before 2017 at the earliest. Recent inspections have indicated the wires within the cables are corroding at a slower rate than first feared and weight restrictions might not have to be introduced until 2021.

There is also optimism that the installation of a £7.8 million dehumidification system, which works by pumping dry air into the cables, could extend the life of the bridge almost indefinitely.

Operating a two-road-bridge system opens the possibility of lowering the specification of the new crossing, with massive cost savings.

Delays by ministers in announcing how the new bridge would be funded have raised suspicions at Holyrood that a review of the project was under way.

Two months ago, First Minister Alex Salmond told MSPs the project was going ahead and an announcement on funding would be made by the end of the year.

Outside parliament, too, questions have been raised about the £4.2 billion price tag of the new bridge.

Retired Dunfermline construction employee Bob Hamilton from Dunfermline has carried out research on other major bridge projects and has told The Courier the new Forth crossing could be built for a fraction of the price.

He said the Oresund road and rail bridge, which connects Denmark and Sweden, was completed in 1999 for £3.2 billion and reaches 25,732ft—over three times the length of the Forth project.

Earlier this year in China, the Hangzhou Bay Road Bridge was finished at a length of 117,037ft for the equivalent of just £1.1 billion.

The new Forth crossing, as originally planned, involves approximately 17km of motorway-standard road connections to improve access to the bridge as well as the new bridge itself.