Meeting of the Parliament 15 March 2016
I am pleased to speak in the debate as a representative of Mid Scotland and Fife, where residents and businesses suffered inconvenience, stress and financial hardship as a result of the closure of the Forth road bridge in December 2015.
As a resident of Dunfermline, I was able to adjust my travel routine to meet the challenges of travelling to and from Edinburgh by train during that period. The fact that stations nearer the bridge could not meet the extra demand for parking resulted in areas around stations up the line becoming extended car parks, which caused subsequent localised disruption.
Travelling early proved effective for me, but many constituents could not be flexible, while others found it difficult to meet the additional expense of train travel. I know that similar impacts were felt in communities and businesses in the west Fife villages, as the Kincardine and Clackmannanshire bridges became extremely congested and people encountered long delays.
Therefore, I am pleased that the committee acknowledged that the closure of the Forth road bridge brought frustration to travellers and had a significant impact on many businesses, not least transport companies and HGV operators. The committee concluded that those
“related and hugely important issues might ... be investigated at a later stage.”
I want to add my support to the committee’s commendation of all those staff who were involved in dealing with the defect that led to the closure of the bridge. It was a remarkable engineering achievement that was carried out during a period of adverse weather conditions. Based on my experience of travelling by train to Edinburgh and looking across at the eerie sight of the huge structure that is the Forth road bridge suspended over the water, which was in darkness except for the lights of the repair work, I have to say that that put into context the scale of the challenge.
In his evidence, Mark Arndt of Amey said:
“Lighting was used so that the work could progress day and night. The teams had to stand down regularly because the winds got so high that it was unsafe to work, but they just got off the scaffolding and waited until the control room indicated that the wind speed had dropped sufficiently to allow them to return.”—[Official Report, Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee, 20 January 2016; c 24.]
That is amazing.
The Minister for Transport and Islands hosted a technical briefing on Monday 14 December 2015, which I attended. Members of the Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee were at that briefing and followed it up by seeking views from witnesses as to whether the specific defect could have been identified at an earlier stage. The former bridgemaster, Barry Colford, was clear in his view that it could not have been, explaining to the committee:
“I have obviously thought about that for quite some time, and my answer is no—I do not think that it could have been foreseen. We carried out our inspections, and the problem was not foreseeable.”—[Official Report, Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee, 27 January 2016; c 21.]
Although I note the committee’s conclusion that the defect that caused the closure could not have been foreseen, I also note that the committee sought to present that view in the context of the previous inspection and maintenance regimes carried out by FETA and the details of FETA’s indicative capital plan proposals and, in particular, any works that related to the truss end link and related components.
The impact of the removal of bridge tolls in 2008 was highlighted in evidence to the ICI Committee by Councillor Lesley Hinds, the former convener of FETA, who indicated that it had resulted in a loss of up to £12 million revenue per annum, with the result that FETA had either to apply for capital funding from Transport Scotland or to use its reserves, which introduced an element of uncertainty into the capital planning process.
An acknowledgement of the change in the funding regime and the effect that it had on FETA’s financial management was provided by Barry Colford, who said:
“FETA was in a position whereby we had the governance but not the funding, which is quite a difficult position for any organisation to be in. It was our responsibility to manage and maintain the Forth road bridge, but we had to rely on funding from the Scottish Government via Transport Scotland.”—[Official Report, Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee, 27 January 2016; c 17-18.]