As North Bridge expenses increase by £24 million, Edinburgh will reduce its budget for road maintenance

EDINBURGH: To cover the skyrocketing cost of repairs to the North Bridge, Edinburgh's roads budget will be reduced by £12 million. (Reported by news source)

The council would also need to borrow an additional £12 million to finish the project, which has been plagued by delays and amended cost projections since it started in 2018.

The director of transportation for the city acknowledged that the city's roads were already underfunded and that budget cuts "will accelerate the rate of decline."

The council approved an additional £25.8 million last year, bringing the total for the increasingly pricey North Bridge renovation to £62 million more than double the sum initially planned.

To close the budgetary deficit, officials have submitted a divisive plan to reduce the capital's budget for repairing potholes and maintaining roads by £1.5 million annually for the next eight years.

The anticipated £134 million decrease to the council's budget for infrastructure projects, which councilors will vote on later this month, includes a £12 million drop to "carriageways and footways."