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For our next appointment we travel across the existing Forth Road Bridge – which will still be used for public transport and pedestrians after the Queensferry Crossing is complete – to the Forth Replacement Crossing Visitor Centre, to meet Hector Woodhouse, a Heriot-Watt University graduate engineer who worked on the first Forth Road Bridge back in 1961.


Against the backdrop of road bridges old and new, Hector tells us about his time working on the former: “I was a civil engineer graduate and I had the fortunate position of supervising the viaducts on either side of the river, which gave me the great opportunity to travel from north to south every day, so I saw everything that was happening on the bridge itself.”


Hector too says his choice of course was essential to his success: “My years at Heriot-Watt were absolutely essential to becoming a good civil engineer. You had the soil mechanics, the structures, the surveying, and how to use a slide rule – because nowadays nobody knows about slide rules – but it was very, very relevant indeed.”


He calls working on the bridge the highlight of his career, followed by designing concrete structures for the new Victoria Line on the London Underground in the early 1960s, and then working on the first phase of the new Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, even if this did involve having to roll with the punches somewhat:“Once we had built this massive building with a huge chimney, they decided to move the Royal Infirmary out to Little France, but my building is still there!”


Hector Woodhouse


Heriot-Watt University graduate engineer, Forth Road Bridge


Heriot-Watt University


www.alumni.hw.ac.uk


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