Mothballed repairs were down to cuts, says inquiry

Holyrood committee says defect to structural beam was unforeseen

The shelving of repairs to the Forth Road Bridge was a “direct consequence” of Scottish Government cuts, an inquiry has found.

A Holyrood committee said the Forth Estuary Transport Authority’s decision to put off strengthening works to a section of the bridge was also influenced by the building of the Queensferry Crossing. But it said Feta’s decision to defer work to the truss end links was the right thing to do – given the financial climate and the expert advice.

A fault, which the inquiry found was not foreseen, was discovered to the truss end links of the Fife to Edinburgh crossing in early December leading to full closure for nearly three weeks.

The report said: “The committee is clear that Feta’s decision in December 2011 to reprioritise projects within its capital plan – including work to address concerns about the efficacy of the truss end link mechanisms – was a direct consequence of a decision by the Scottish Government/ Transport Scotland to reduce its capital grant allocation for the period 2012-13 to 2014-15.

It is also the committee’s view that the development of the Forth Replacement crossing would have had an influence on decisions to reprioritise certain capital projects.”

Most, but not all, of the MSPs sitting on the committee agreed a “route existed” for Feta to go back to ministers if it believed it was “necessary to accelerate work” on the truss end links to “address a matter of public safety”.

The infrastructure committee ruled that Feta took the “appropriate course of action” given the “prevailing financial circumstances and the engineering advice available at the time”.

The report’s conclusions were largely quiet on the Scottish Government’s role in the crisis despite ministers slashing Feta’s capital maintenance budget by 58% in 2011.

A former bridgemaster at Feta told the inquiry the maintenance works were not a “wish list” but what “needed to be done in our professional opinion”. Transport Secretary Derek Mackay told MSPs the Government would have funded “anything that was critical in terms of the health of the bridge” if Feta came to them.

Mr Mackay said the reduction to capital budget was made with “financial pressures” being felt by “everyone in public life”.

Feta’s decision to reprioritise projects was a direct consequence of a decision by the Scottish Government to reduce its capital budget.