The Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee has agreed to undertake an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the closure of the Forth Road Bridge on 4 December 2015. While the Committee understands that the closure has brought frustration to travellers and significant impact upon many businesses, this work will be focused on the structural defects identified on the Forth Road Bridge and whether these could have been avoided or dealt with differently.
Specifically, the remit of the inquiry is:
“To examine the management, monitoring and maintenance of the Forth Road Bridge principally in the 10 year period prior to its closure on public safety grounds in December 2015.”
The Committee will hold a series of oral evidence sessions in January and February 2016 where it will hear from officials and engineers from Transport Scotland and Amey (who were appointed by Transport Scotland to manage and maintain the Forth Road Bridge from June 2015), representatives of the former Forth Estuary Transport Authority (who had previously managed and maintained the Bridge up to June 2015), independent engineering experts and the Minister for Transport and Islands.
Call for written evidence
The Committee is also keen to hear the views of anyone who might be able to comment on the management, monitoring and maintenance of the Forth Road Bridge principally over the past 10 years. You might have been involved with the Forth Road Bridge or have specialist technical knowledge of bridge engineering which may be of assistance to the Committee
In providing your views, you may wish to consider structuring responses around any of the following points:
- the nature and extent of the defect and its impact on the structural integrity of the Forth Road Bridge
- the proposed or actual structural maintenance and repair programmes principally between 2005-2015 and whether the structural defect in the North east tower truss end link could have been avoided; and
- the levels of capital budgets and revenue funding available for structural monitoring, maintenance and repair of the Forth Road Bridge during this same period.
The Committee will take into account all evidence received on the closure of the Forth Road Bridge prior to publishing a report on its findings prior to dissolution of the Scottish Parliament in March 2016. Your views will also help shape the inquiry and feed into oral evidence sessions.
Submitting your views to the Committee
The Committee invites views from any individuals or organisations who feel they may have information relevant to the Committee’s inquiry.
While the Committee appreciates that many people will also have views on other aspects of the Bridge’s closure, such as its economic impact and the transport disruption, it should be noted that any such submissions would fall outwith the scope of this inquiry.
To allow the Committee to take account of any views received, submissions should be sent to the address below, no later than Friday 29 January 2016.
Written submissions should be submitted electronically (preferably in plain text Word format and without graphical borders or headers) to: [email protected]
Written submissions will be made public on the Committee’s webpage. If you do not wish your response to be made public, please contact the clerks to discuss (you may wish to refer to the Parliament’s policy on handling information received in response to calls for evidence).
The Committee welcomes written evidence in English, Gaelic or any other language.
If you have any further questions regarding the Committee’s work on this inquiry, please contact the Committee clerking team at the above e-mail address or on 0131 348 5244.
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