Search is on for new metaphor as painters complete Forth Bridge

The painting of the Forth Bridge, a job that is famously never finished, has finally been completed, it has been announced.

The Forth Rail Bridge 

Network Rail said that its 10-year, £130m programme of refurbishment had ended and that the crossing would not now need another full paint job for at least 20 years.

The project, delivered by Network Rail and main contractor Balfour Beatty Regional Civil Engineering, involved encasing the bridge in up to 4,000 tonnes of scaffolding and painting more than 230,000 square meters of steel.

A triple layer of new glass flake epoxy paint was applied to the bridge, similar to that used by the offshore oil industry, to create a virtually impenetrable layer.

The projects completion sparked immediate calls to find a new metaphor which adequately described a seemingly never ending process.

Twitter users suggested “upgrading the M1 near Luton” would be a suitable replacement or “shaving a wookiee” - a famously furry character in the Star Wars trilogy.