Meeting of the Parliament 15 March 2016
The minister’s comments reassure me, but the report is based on evidence that we heard from more than one source, so I am not reassured as to why some people say one thing and the minister says another. I totally accept what the minister says this afternoon, but that is not what members heard in committee.
One other concern I have about the Forth road bridge is the inspection regime. During evidence, we learned that bridge owners and operators are responsible for carrying out inspections on their bridges to check for any deterioration in the structure. The “Design Manual for Roads and Bridges” is the UK standard that has been adopted by Transport Scotland, and it sets out the normal inspection requirements for motorway and trunk road bridges.
There are three main inspection regimes: safety inspections, general inspections and principal inspections. The committee heard, however, that FETA did not follow the standard approach, as the bridgemaster and chief engineer did not consider that approach to be sufficiently focused and robust for a major structure such as the Forth road bridge.
As a result, critical components such as the truss end links were inspected every six months. When Transport Scotland took over from FETA, it too adopted the six-month critical component inspections. The most recent of those inspections took place on 19 May 2015. My question is, why was a critical inspection not undertaken in November? Given the six-month regime, it remains unclear why no critical component inspection was taken when planned, and what the reasons were for it not going ahead. We need further clarity on that, and we need to be confident that those inspections will now take place when planned.
There are many areas of the report that I would have spoken about if I had had more time. I believe that the inquiry was important and that its remit was fulfilled. However, I echo my earlier comments that a successor committee needs to carry out a far-ranging inquiry when Parliament resumes later this year.
16:06