Time capsule buried in Edinburgh's historic North Bridge to mark seven-year restoration project

The Scotsman

A time capsule was been embedded in Edinburgh's historic North Bridge to mark the major restoration project over the last seven years.  The works have been beset by delays and significant overspends but is finally set to finish in summer 2026.  The items in the capsule included a letter from the Lord Provost and Council Leader, a paint brush used by the Transport and Environment Convener to hand finish the cast iron facade, a Balfour Beatty high visibility vest, a Glengarry Cap from the Kings Own Scottish Borderers regiment, the school prayer of St Augustine’s High School and a copy of the anthology North Bridge: Where We Travelled.

Transcript

00:00People in Edinburgh are used to Northbridge looking like this, a pretty

00:04major eyesore in the middle of the city. For the last seven years contractors have

00:09been undertaking a major restoration of this historic bridge in a bid to return

00:14it to its former glory and make it safe for generations to come. The project has

00:20been beset by delays and significant overspend but the bridge is finally set

00:26to be completed by summer next year and what better way to memorialize a

00:30project of this scale than to bury a time capsule for future users of the

00:35bridge to discover and enjoy. I spent the morning with members of Edinburgh City

00:40Council, school pupils and other people connected to the project to watch the

00:44internment of the time capsule which contained items from everything from

00:49photographs to flags to even a paintbrush for people in decades to come to open and

00:55learn about this remarkable restoration project. Today we are interning the time

01:01capsule which is a collection of really interesting items that have been pulled

01:07together from civic leaders in the city, from myself I've actually managed to put

01:15something into this morning and this time capsule is going to be embedded into the

01:20bridge and the plan is for it to be reopened in 30 years time. A number of

01:24reasons why the the project has taken a little longer than we would have liked

01:28ultimately when the project started we didn't really quite fully estimate the

01:35amount of work that was going to be required to enhance and improve the bridge

01:40when the the concrete surface was taken away it was quite significantly corroded so

01:47the project has has has actually taken a lot more time and a bit more money to

01:53deliver what's a really important monument in the centre of Edinburgh.

01:57Just behind me you can see the guys have started taking down the

01:59scaffold today and we're going to start that process of slowly unveiling the

02:04structure over the next 12 months. Still working towards springtime next year for

02:08removing the traffic management for the bridge and into summertime then for the

02:11completion of the project. This bridge is a focal point in the city and we can

02:15see that as we've been here over the years people come to see the North Bridge and hopefully

02:20they'll come and they'll appreciate the restoration works that we've done here.

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