Squinty Bridge Closed

[cell]

looks like you were right blueboy but I'd still like to see the final failure report, these things are normally a combination of factors and the chinese might be an easy scapegoat. I wonder as a council tax payer if we are allowed a look? I might have to ask, I'll let you know how I get on!

[Lucky Poet]

Hey ho! While we all wait to see what happens with the Squinty Bridge, here's its slightly older and rather smaller sibling, in case any of you haven't seen it. It crosses the A8 at glamorous, happening Gogarburn, and unusually it hasn't had anything fall off yet (touch wood). Gotta love the stinking great corporate logo on it too. It's always struck me as being a dry run for the big one though, and I dare say some wee structural engineers were running back and forth here when the muckle great Glasgow version went pop...


Hope you like. It was either this or post some nice pictures of a kitten.

[dave2]

They originally wanted a larger illuminated logo but Edinburgh City Council refused...

[onyirtodd]

They originally wanted a larger illuminated logo but Edinburgh City Council refused...

Maybe they should reapply and bung ex-employee Alex Salmond a few quid to see it goes through. Nobody could Trump that.

[dave2]

In the case of Goarburn, QMUC always maintain thre was shady dealings as they had a deal with NHS Lothian to buy the site eas they new campus when suddenly the Scot Exec got Involved and the NHS sold it to RBS, with QMU having to find a greenfield site in Musselburgh instead.

[onyirtodd]

In the case of Gogarburn, QMUC always maintain thre was shady dealings as they had a deal with NHS Lothian to buy the site eas they new campus when suddenly the Scot Exec got Involved and the NHS sold it to RBS, with QMU having to find a greenfield site in Musselburgh instead.

Is that how Susan Deacon got her job at QMU?

[dave2]

I have no idea. But if you like conspiracy theories...... She was born in and was MSP for Musselburgh though wasn't she? And she does at least have a degree in a related subject to her 'Professorship'.

[Lucky Poet]

I always thought there was something a bit suspect about the RBS getting to build in the middle of the greenbelt... albeit on brownfield, but still. And no doubt if they'd had it all their way there would have been a 50 foot high logo on the bridge, shooting laser beams at night and singing hallelujah during the day.

Any word on old ill-starred Squinty? I take it it's not went kersplash yet?

[dave2]

Well if RBS had wanted to move its HQ from Edinburgh, I'm sure Stirling, Glasgow etc would have thrown open their planning departments - a few thousands jobs and associated economic benefits etc...so the council could be justified in wanting to keep their HQ in the area.

[Lucky Poet]

Dammit, we'll have none of your reasonable explanations round here, sir!
Money talks, I guess. (Sadly, it doesn't seem to be speaking to me.)

[scoobydoo]

Any word on old ill-starred Squinty? I take it it's not went kersplash yet?

All the suspect connections have been replaced. The original cable that was attached to the first connection to fail has still to be replaced. Should be re-opened in June from what I've read in the press

[onyirtodd]

Well if RBS had wanted to move its HQ from Edinburgh, I'm sure Stirling, Glasgow etc would have thrown open their planning departments - a few thousands jobs and associated economic benefits etc...so the council could be justified in wanting to keep their HQ in the area.

RBS were never leaving Embra'. The cost of relocating existing staff*/ recruitment and training costs of new staff made that a non-starter.



* some existing staff reckoned Gogarburn, just outside the bypass, was just a wee bit too close to Glasgow as it was.

[Lucky Poet]

Cheers, Scoob. Just a few weeks that, in theory - I must go get a look at the thing once it's done. I imagine all the replaced connections are being very methodically torn to shreds in testing labs as we speak...

Onny, in all fairness it was a choice between a) getting to spend your sunny Embro* city centre lunch break being all louche and that in Princes St Gardens, the squirrels playing around you in the shade of the castle, here in the very analmost centre of Scottish history, playground of kings and queens, beautiful architecture &c. blah blah, at a major public transport hub, and b) get a cracking view of the bypass from inside an all-consuming air-conditioned nightmare (though there are some prime examples of giant hogweed round there to beautify the scene) in the middle of somewhere or other.

*Robert Fergusson, Robert Garioch, get it up yeez

[onyirtodd]

At least Gogarburn has shops on both sides of the street.

[Lucky Poet]

True!