The brand new £3.2million Cowes Floating Bridge has been labelled a ‘complete cock up’ by locals on its first day in operation, with many vehicles left unable to disembark from the chain ferry without scraping the recently remodelled slipway.
Floating Bridge No. 6 entered service at 14:00 this afternoon (Saturday) with much celebration. Crowds gathered for the first crossing, but it didn’t take long for onlookers and motorists alike to discover a major issue with the new vessel.
Despite being delayed by several weeks and costing the taxpayer over £3million, it appears the angles have not been calculated correctly meaning cars bottom out when rolling off the loading ramp and onto the slipway at East Cowes. The scraping is happening on a fairly normal tide – not too high, not too low.
The Isle of Wight Council have said the next 2 to 3 weeks is where any final teething problems or minor issues will be dealt with prior to the official launch of the service in June.
Councillor Karl Love, who was recently elected as councillor of East Cowes has said:
“I’m very concerned at what looked like a disaster in the miscalculation of the road angles which are damaging low level cars and long based vehicles. They scrape the ground as they load and unload from East Cowes.
“I understand several car owners are already planning to make claims against the council for damage, meanwhile cars continue to be loaded on board. If you have a low sports car I would suggest you consider to drive around at this time”.
The new floating bridge is 37m long and is capable of reaching up to 5 knots. She was built by Welsh firm Mainstay Marine Solutions Limited and will ensure the future connectivity between Cowes and East Cowes, for at least the next 25 years.
