Work to replace the cracked part of the Forth Road Bridge was abandoned five years ago, the Transport Secretary has admitted.
Derek Mackay said bosses of the now defunct Forth Estuary Transport Authority (Feta) had weighed up whether to go ahead with maintenance work, which would have replaced the area in question, “and much more”.
At Holyrood on Tuesday, MSPs called for a parliamentary inquiry into the upkeep of the Edinburgh to Fife crossing, which was used by an estimated 70,000 vehicles a day before its closure last week.
The Scottish Government took over the maintenance of the bridge when FETA dissolved in the summer.
Mr Mackay was asked if the cancelled 2010 works would have replaced the section of the bridge where a 20mm crack appeared in a load-bearing beam.
“It would have seen the replacement of that area and much more,” he revealed.
He added that the authority had “re-scoped” the project after receiving advice from engineers.
“Feta, the operating company at the time, would have been informed that other works would have addressed what was identified to be the problem,” he said.
“On that advice, they re-scoped their work and that is what we inherited.
“They believed, on their engineering advice, that very specific works on strengthening could be carried out to address some of the issues they had identified and they had re-scoped their own work and progressed with that.”
Scottish Labour’s business manager James Kelly said: “Derek Mackay’s misleading statements on the maintenance work on the Forth Road Bridge are unacceptable.
“On the one hand the SNP minister told parliament that cancelled repair works weren’t linked to the bridge closure, but then on the radio he admitted that cancelled repair works would have replaced the damaged section of the bridge as far back as 2010.
“We need full transparency from the SNP Government about what has happened here, which is why there should be a full parliamentary inquiry into this matter.
“The thousands of people whose lives have been affected by the closure of the Forth Road Bridge deserve nothing less.”