Meeting of the Parliament 15 March 2016
I thank the team of Presiding Officers for their understanding this afternoon. I also thank the convener, Jim Eadie, the other members of the committee and the clerks to the committee for their forbearance over the past few months. Although I am a member of the committee, I missed several of the evidence-taking sessions due to severe morning sickness. I appreciate the patience of the convener and members with my situation. I can honestly say that I would rather have been with them on those mornings.
The inquiry focused on the closure of the Forth road bridge to all traffic on public safety grounds on 4 December due to the discovery of steelwork defects in a support beam. The inquiry did not look at the effect that the closure had on commuters across Scotland. The decision to omit that detail was difficult, because it was a significant issue for many, but, given the limited timescale available to the inquiry, it was not possible to look at the many effects that resulted from the closure of the bridge. However, I believe that it is important that the next committee dealing with transport and infrastructure looks into that issue.
As a member representing Central Scotland, I know that the impact of the bridge closure was acutely felt in Falkirk, because traffic was diverted through it and public transport was diverted away from it. I also know that constituents travelling from their homes in Lanarkshire by car took an average of two hours to get to work in Dunfermline, due to the traffic on all other routes. That journey should take around an hour. Of course, the closure of the bridge was necessary, but we should not forget the impact of that decision on individuals trying to get to their work or their home. Therefore, a wide-ranging inquiry is needed.
Readers of the report already commissioned will see that it was not initially clear why the member failed. We heard from Amey that the truss end link failure was caused by fatigue failure. When that was confirmed, further analysis was carried out to try to gain an understanding of how the member could have been subjected to such fatigue loading. Richard Hornby, Director of Arup, told the committee how a fatigue failure is likely to occur. He said that initially it would have been a very small crack that would have been undetectable in an inspection. It would have grown gradually at first but then quicker, and would probably have taken only a matter of months to grow from a crack that was visually undetectable to something that had totally failed.
In his evidence to the committee, Mr Hornby commented on the difficulty of seeing the pins at the truss end links, due to the design that was used on the Forth road bridge. That caused me a great deal of concern, as we were talking about the north side of the bridge, so I asked for clarification. I asked whether it would be possible to see the pin once the repair was carried out, and whether the other pins would be replaced so that all the pins on the bridge were visible. Mr Hornby replied:
“My recommendation would be that all the linkages be replaced, because one has shown itself to be time-served. All the others are ticking time bombs, to a greater or lesser extent; they should all be repaired. The best solution having been worked out for that one location, it should be implemented on all eight corners.”—[Official Report, Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee, 20 January 2016; c 30-1.]
We know that work had to be carried out on the north and south corners, and I therefore hope that all the pins are now visible, as recommended by Mr Hornby. If there is a lesson to learn from the recent safety concerns about the bridge, it is to listen to the advice that we are given and to act on that advice.
The committee also reported its concerns regarding the decision-making process in an emergency. We heard from three bridgemasters for similar bridges in the UK. They have full control over whether their bridges close when an emergency occurs. Although I agree that the decision to close the Forth road bridge was correct, there was a time delay of five hours between Amey’s recommendation that the Forth road bridge be closed, and the decision—taken at a meeting with ministers—to close it.