THE Scottish Parliament is set to hold its own inquiry into the Forth Road Bridge closure after a Holyrood committee said it would examine “options” for looking into the issues that led to the closure.
The infrastructure and capital investment committee will decide on ordering an inquiry next Wednesday, and Holyrood sources last night indicated a lot would depend on statements by the Scottish Government and Transport Minister Derek Mackay before then.
The National can reveal that up to £80 million will need to be spent on the road bridge up to and after the Queensferry Crossing opens.
The Transport Minister and Transport Scotland have repeatedly asserted that decisions on the repair and refurbishment of the 51-year-old bridge were entirely down to the Forth Estuary Transport Authority (Feta), even though Transport Scotland funded the bridge’s operation in their entirety after the tolls were abolished in 2008.
However, The National can reveal that senior officials of Feta were constantly in touch with Transport Scotland, even as they prepared to hand over to the private company Amey.
A minute of a meeting of Feta in February last year states: “Transport Scotland have requested that a schedule of capital works considered to be essential to ensure the future structural integrity of the Forth Road Bridge be forwarded to them for inclusion within the Forth Bridges Operating Contract.
“The total sum is of the order of £80 million over ten years and a large part of that cost is in the work to strengthen and paint the suspended span truss.
“Other significant schemes include the replacement of the deck joints (delayed until the opening of the new crossing); the resurfacing of the main span and viaducts; viaducts painting; the suspended span underdeck access improvements (main works) and the improvements to the suspended span gantries.”
The same report states: “Following the assessment of the suspended span truss, these critical structural members were found to be significantly overstressed during certain combinations of loading.”
The recommendation was to strengthen the links rather than carry out a full replacement costing “significantly less than full replacement which has an estimated cost of £10 to £15 million.”
The report added: “If the trial is not successful, then the full replacement scheme would have to be reconsidered post abolition of the authority.”
A senior figure at Feta who left when the authority was dissolved on June 1 this year last night told The National: “Just about everything was discussed with Transport Scotland, not least the 65 per cent cut in our capital budget that was imposed four years ago.
“Senior staff did leave when the bridge was privatised, but their work prior to then should not be denigrated which is what the Government appears to be doing.”
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