POLITICAL
Page 31
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Toll bridge for Clyde
THE GOVERNMENT has introduced a Bill into Parliament to authorize the charging of tolls on the £7m Erskine bridge to be built across the Clyde to link the expanding industrial areas of Renfrewshire and Dunbartonshire.
The amount of the tolls will be detailed later when building costs are known more accurately, but the Bill limits them to what is necessary to recover the cost of construction of the bridge and approach roads over a period of 20 years.
Draft orders proposing toll scales will be advertised and there will be provision for objections, after a public inquiry if necessary. Powers will also be token to control traffic on the bridge in the interests of safety and to remove vehicles which stop or break down.
The Bill will bring the Erskine bridge— its foundations are now being built and it is part of a trunk road project—into line with the Forth, Tay and Severn bridges. When it is finished, it will connect with the new road to be built from Glasgow to Port Glasgow, including the Renfrew by-pass which is nearing completion.