"NEVER-ENDING" PAINT JOB SET TO FINISH

Engineering firm Balfour Beatty has revealed it will finish applying a new long-lasting paint to the famous crossing in six years' time.

The coating is intended to last for around 30 years, and will mark the end of the reputedly interminable task in which teams of workers start repainting as soon as they finish the last coat.

The 8,300ft bridge, with its three enormous red-coloured diamond-shaped spans, was completed in 1890. Balfour Beatty has been restoring the structure since 2002, blasting the 51,000 tons of steelwork back to bare metal before applying a tough coating used on oil rigs.

Track operator Network Rail has awarded the firm a £74 million contract to complete the restoration work to 2012.

The project will mark the "end of the modern myth" of the never-ending paint job, Balfour Beatty said, although in reality there have been periods when no paint has been applied.

The bridge carries the East Coast Main line across the Forth Estuary between North and South Queensferry and sees up to 200 train movements a day.

Balfour Beatty's chief executive, Ian Tyler, said: "Working on this iconic railway structure presents a number of unique challenges. However, together with Network Rail, we will be able to build on our long-term partnership to complete this challenging and fundamentally important work.

"By 2012, the bridge will be fully restored to its original condition."

Network Rail's chief executive Iain Coucher added: "The team currently working on the bridge has now completed some of the most difficult work and they have already overcome the most significant challenges that this project posed."