Editing Forth Road Bridge (section)

====2016 public inquiry====
[[File:ForthRoadBridgeUnder.jpg|thumb|Undercarriage of Forth Road Bridge, 2024.]]
On 20 January 2016, the Scottish Parliament began an inquiry led by the Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee (ICI) to determine the circumstances that led to the discovery of a cracked truss in the bridge's undercarriage.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://stv.tv/news/east-central/1339718-inquiry-into-closure-of-the-forth-road-bridge-to-begin-at-holyrood/|title=Inquiry into closure of the Forth Road Bridge to begin at Holyrood|website=STV News}}</ref> Evidence was heard from FETA, Transport Minister Derek Mackay, engineers and officials from Amey along with a number of other experts and key personnel.

On the first day, Richard Hornby, of engineering consulting firm [[Arup Group|Arup]], stated that the truss end in question had been inspected 23 times since 2001, and no fault had been found. It was revealed that a pin had seized up, which caused the truss end to crack, and it was only the quality of the steel which had stopped its cracking appearing earlier. Hornby also made clear that even if the seized pin had been picked up earlier, it was "virtually impossible" to lubricate the bearing.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.thenational.scot/news/inspections-could-not-have-detected-forth-road-bridge-fault-inquiry-is-told.12659 |title=Inspections could not have detected Forth Road Bridge fault, inquiry is told| first=Kathleen |last=Nutt |work=[[The National (Scotland)|The National]] |date=21 January 2016 |access-date=28 August 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-35354846 |title=Seized pin caused Forth Road Bridge fault, engineer tells Holyrood inquiry |work=BBC News |date=20 January 2016}}</ref> Several witnesses defended a decision by previous operator FETA not to proceed with a £15 million truss end link replacement project in 2010. This was disputed by Barry Colford, former chief engineer and bridgemaster at FETA. Lesley Hinds, FETA's former convener, pointed out that the bridge budget had been cut by 58% in 2011,<ref>{{cite web |title=Forth Road Bridge engineers 'wanted to replace' link which broke |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-35419963 |website=BBC News |access-date=22 September 2024 |date=27 January 2016}}</ref> while senior staff at FETA had "deep concerns" about the transfer of bridge management to a private company.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/politics/248244/vital-work-shelved-due-to-funding-cuts-forth-road-bridge-inquiry-hears/ |title=Vital work shelved due to funding cuts, Forth Road Bridge inquiry hears |work=The Courier |date=28 January 2016 |access-date=28 August 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-35419963|title=MSPs quiz Forth Road Bridge engineer|work=BBC News |date=27 January 2016}}</ref>