ESAB (www.esab.co.uk), a world leader in welding and cutting technologies, supplied the flux-cored wires and welding electrodes to the consortium that designed and built the Queensferry Crossing road bridge across the Firth of Forth for Transport Scotland.

Towering 207m above high tide and requiring 150,000 tonnes of concrete and 35,000 tonnes of steel, the bridge cost £1.35 billion and was built to motorway standards, with two lanes and a hard shoulder in each direction, supported by three composite steel and concrete towers.

The contract awarded to ESAB stipulated that the welding wire must be supplied via a local distributor, so the company shipped large volumes to Industrial Welding Supplies in Dunfermline — just three miles from the construction site.