The Forth Road Bridge is to be closed until the new year because of structural faults. A crack been discovered in a vertical steel member – the second to be found. Amey engineers who are in charge of inspections said the 20mm-wide shear crack in a truss under the southbound carriageway close to the bridge's north tower could not have been predicted and happened quickly.

According to the Daily Telegraph the award winning Halley V1 ice station designed by AECOM’s Peter Ayres and architect Hugh Broughton, which was built to be able to move, is about to have to prove its worth. The British Antarctic Survey station is in the path of an advancing ice chasm, 160ft deep, 18 miles long and half a mile wide. Bulldozers are to be brought in by sea to tow the ice station’s modules to a new location 20 miles away. 

Detailed plans to fix cracks in the Forth Road which has been closed until January have now been finalised.  The repair solution involves a plate welded repair to the damaged truss end link and jacking the link into position. In addition to repairing the defect, Amey is taking preventative action on another seven similar locations on the bridge to prevent any issues from occuring and structural monitoring systems are also being installed at these locations.