Works to replace the cracked part of Forth Road Bridge were considered five years ago but were abandoned, the Transport Secretary has admitted.
Derek Mackay said the bosses of the now defunct Forth Estuary Transport Authority had weighed up whether to go ahead with maintenance work.
He said that work would have seen “seen the replacement of that area and much more”.
At Holyrood on Tuesday, MSPs called for a parliamentary inquiry into the upkeep of the Edinburgh to Fife crossing, which was used by an estimated 70,000 vehicles a day before its closure last week.
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The Scottish Government took over the maintenance of the bridge when FETA was dissolved in the summer.
Mr Mackay was asked if the 2010 works that were cancelled would have replaced the section of the bridge where a 20mm crack appeared in a load-bearing beam.
“It would have seen the replacement of that area and much more,” he told BBC Radio Scotland.
He added the authority had “re-scoped” the project after receiving advice from engineers.
Mr Mackay said: “Feta, the operating company at the time, would have been informed that other works would have addressed what was identified to be the problem. On that advice, they re-scoped their work and that is what we inherited.”
He stated: “They believed, on their engineering advice, that very specific works on strengthening could be carried out to address some of the issues they had identified and they had re-scoped their own work and progressed with that.”
Scottish Labour’s deputy leader and Fife MSP Alex Rowley said the revelation contrasts with Mr Mackay’s statement to Holyrood and confirms the need for a full parliamentary inquiry.
He said: “For an SNP Minister to admit that cancelled repair works would have replaced the damaged section of the bridge as far back as 2010 raises many more questions about the actions of the government.”