Questions over Forth Road Bridge closure

Dualling and duelling. The Forth Road Bridge. At Holyrood today, opposition MSPs generally welcomed the efforts thus far to mitigate the bridge closure. With understandable caveats.

But, persisting in their dual approach, they were sharpening their rapiers for a possible future conflict on the causes of closure.

The Transport Minister, Derek Mackay, performed well. It perhaps helped his endeavours that he headed straight from the chamber to the traffic control room to monitor developments. Hard work helps on these occasions.

And certainly most MSPs were prepared to cut him some slack with regard to the alternative travel plans - while pressing for flexibility and further change in response to public feedback.

Big impact?

They had detailed suggestions to make. That is the way democracy tends to work on these occasions. Angry folk contact their elected tribunes who put pressure on the minister….who puts pressure on the officials…..who….you get the concept.

Mr Mackay stressed that there would still be huge problems. It was simply not possible to divert 70,000 vehicles without a big impact. But he listed, in considerable detail, the efforts to provide alternative offers.

Nicola Sturgeon looks out over the Forth Road Bridge from the Traffic Scotland control room

Then the longer term issues. Murdo Fraser of the Conservatives noted that businesses which had lost money might well feel entitled to compensation.

And the underlying causes? Mr Fraser, Labour's Alex Rowley, Willie Rennie of the Liberal Democrats, and others questioned whether capital spending cuts and alterations to the repairs programme were contributory factors.

Mr Mackay replied robustly. Any critical repairs had been fully funded - both when the Forth Estuary Transport Authority was in charge and, now, under the private contractor Amey. He denied further that there had been any staffing problems in the hand over to Amey.

And those repairs? He replied to the point about a planned repair five years ago, in 2010. MSPs questioned whether the scope of that might have included the present trouble spot.

The Minister said that repair had been cancelled by officials as unwarranted - but then reconfigured and reinstated. It was not connected, he was assured, to the present problem which only emerged in the past few weeks.

What did Transport Scotland say about the historic repairs?

"These claims are simply not true. The decision not to proceed with the scheme and to cancel the contract in 2010 was a decision by Forth Estuary Transport Authority (FETA) as they deemed the works could be delivered with a revised scheme at a lower cost and less disruption.

"The revised scheme was different to the advertised works and so the contract notice was no longer applicable and was withdrawn by FETA. This is recorded as cancelled.

"A successful trial of the revised developed scheme was carried out in May 2015 by FETA before the responsibility to manage and maintain the Forth Road Bridge changed in June to Amey. This informed the way forward and Amey continue to progress this maintenance scheme and the associated repair works are ongoing. Specialist Independent Engineers have confirmed that the current defect is unrelated to the ongoing repairs

"We will be transparent around the nature of fault on the Forth Road Bridge which I think shows that the Scottish Government has taken all appropriate action."

For now, MSPs agree with the minister. The urgent priority is to mitigate problems - and get the bridge open.

Indeed, Mr Mackay - normally the essence of droll containment - became decidedly passionate on that latter point.

But it would appear evident that those longer term questions will arise again.

Mr Mackay is adamant he has the answers to offer.

Not least that new Forth crossing which, he said, was thoroughly justified, particularly in the light of recent events.