A start date for the work to replace crucial bearings between the road bridge’s box girders and the tops of its columns was given to members of the bridge joint board at a meeting in Dundee City Chambers today.

Members were told preparatory work is now well under way and works on site requiring traffic management are expected to commence on August 1.

The £19 million-plus programme of essential repairs will mean the bridge board having to find more than £8 million in extra cash.

It now looks likely that the shortfall will have to be met through increased tolls for bridge users — but just when the tolls will have to rise and by exactly how much is not yet clear.

Bridge officials are still seeking a meeting with Scottish Executive transport minister Nicol Stephen over a crucial element for the funding issue.

At present, the bridge board is facing a 2016 deadline date, by which all capital borrowing must be repaid. While this was previously not seen as a problem, the bearings replacement programme has now meant that, unless the deadline is removed, tolls will almost certainly have to increase.

The issue of the repairs cash shortfall and the implications for tolls was raised again at today’s meeting by Fife councillor Andrew Arbuckle, who said it was clearly an important issue for motorists using the bridge and asked if a further meeting with Mr Stephen had yet been set for discussions over the repayment deadline. Board treasurer David Dorward said officials were still seeking such a meeting.

It is understood, however, that officials are not anticipating any further significant additional support from the Executive and will carry out a review of the current tolls levels in relation to likely increases to meet the cost of the repair programme.

In a report to the board meeting today, bridge engineer Ken Laing said that, after the April meeting, the treasurer wrote to the Executive seeking confirmation of additional capital grant for the bearing replacement programme of £950,000 for each of the three financial years 2005/6, 2006/7 and 2007/8, as well as requesting a further meeting with the transport minister.

A subsequent letter from the Executive was received confirming their agreement to the provision of the additional funding as requested. However, to date, no response had been received concerning a further meeting with Mr Stephen.

Mr Laing’s report said also that, following the receipt of the letter from the Executive, a letter of acceptance was issued to contractor Cleveland Bridge to carry out the bearing replacement works.

Further evidence that the volume of traffic crossing the Tay Road Bridge is continuing to rise steadily was submitted to board members when the board’s unaudited statement of accounts for the year to March 31 was tabled at the meeting.

Figures showed that, over the 12 months, 4,471,319 vehicles crossed the bridge between Dundee and Newport, a 2.24% increase over the previous year of 4,373,506. The revenues from the tolls charged rose by 2.5% from £3,526,463 to £3,614,608.