Skye Bridge

The Skye Bridge is a road bridge over Loch Alsh, connecting the mainland of Scotland with the Isle of Skye. It forms part of the A87.

The shortest crossing between the mainland and the island (around 500 metres), the sound between the villages of Kyle of Lochalsh on the mainland and Kyleakin on the island's east coast has traditionally been the most common route. A ferry operated services from around 1600, run by a number of private operators and latterly by Caledonian MacBrayne.

With the construction of road and rail connections to Kyle of Lochalsh toward the end of the 19th century, various parties proposed the construction of a bridge to the island. Although the engineering task was well within the capability of the age (the crossing is shorter and shallower than that bridged by the Forth Rail Bridge), the island's remote location and its small population meant the cost of a bridge could not be justified.

Increased prosperity in the islands, and a healthy summertime tourist traffic, led to ever increasing volumes of traffic queueing for the ferries, and brought renewed calls for the construction of a road bridge. In 1989 the government requested tenders to construct a bridge, with the contract being awarded to Miller-Dywidag, a Scottish/German construction consortium. The Miller-Dywidag proposal (designed in collaboration with civil engineering firm Ove Arup) was for a single-span concrete arch supported by two piers resting on caissons in the loch. Construction began in 1992 and the bridge was opened on October 16, 1995. At this time the ferry service across the sound ceased, leaving the bridge the only year-round connection to the mainland.

The first major capital project funded by the the Private Finance Initiative, the bridge has been controversial since its construction was announced. In exchange for the contractors funding the bridge's construction themselves (rather than being paid to do so from the public exchequer) they were granted a licence to operate the bridge and charge travellers tolls. Critics of the scheme believe the total cost (including payments that were made by the government, and around £30 million of tolls subsequently collected) to be many times the cost that would have been incurred had the bridge been built using conventional public funding.

The tolls charged by the bridge concessionaire, Skye Bridge Ltd., have proved to be particularly unpopular. Many Skye residents believed that, as the bridge is connected to the public road network, no toll should be charged. Although originally cheaper than the ferry it replaced, the bridge's toll has increased since, and is said to be the highest in Europe - in 2004 a round trip for a car costs £11.40, fourteen times the round-trip price charged by the Forth Road Bridge (a crossing over twice the length). Opposition, led by local group Skye and Kyle Against Tolls (SKAT) and veteran campaigner Robbie the Pict, began with the opening of the bridge. This included mass protests and a prolonged non-payment campaign, and has continued since. Numerous opponents have been cited for refusing to pay the toll, with a number being arrested and convicted.

The bridge, and the toll protest, has been a continuing political issue, with Robbie the Pict running for MSP (unsuccessfully) partially on an anti-toll platform, and only the ruling Labour Party continuing to support the tolls. On June 3, 2004, Jim Wallace, the Enterprise Minister in the Scottish Executive announced that he hoped the bridge would be bought out, and tolls abolished, by the end of the 2004.