Plans to replace worn sections of the Forth Road Bridge were shelved five years ago because of Scottish Government funding cuts.

Former bridgemaster Barry Colford told MSPs the replacement of truss end links on the bridge - the area containing the defect that caused the crossing's closure in December - was part of a capital programme of works engineers believed was "needed in our professional opinion".

Mr Colford was giving evidence to Holyrood's infrastructure committee alongside several other witnesses from the Forth Estuary Transport Authority (Feta), the body that managed the bridge until last year.

The committee was told the removal of bridge tolls in 2008 and budget cuts in the 2011 spending review impacted on Feta's capital budget.

Edinburgh City Council transport convener Lesley Hinds said the spending review resulted in a 58% cut to the organisation's capital plan, forcing a "reprioritisation exercise" to be undertaken.

As a result, the 2010-11 plan to replace the truss end links at a cost of £10m to £15m did not go ahead.

The committee previously heard a seized pin caused the crack that led to the closure of the bridge for almost three weeks in December.

Mr Colford said he did not believe the seizure of the pin was "foreseeable" and it was not the primary reason for the planned truss end links work.

He said: "The pins were always a concern, not just for myself but also for my predecessors. There was no sign of excess wear on the pin ... there was nothing to say that the pin wasn't performing and there was nothing in the inspection to say that there were any outward signs of distress on the adjacent members."

Mr Colford said the pin was "not a good detail" though, because it was not easy to inspect or lubricate.

"These things were part of our thinking when we were looking to replace the whole truss end links back in 2010-11," he said.

When asked about the scrapping of the replacement plan, Mr Colford said: "Obviously finances come into that. Post-tolling we were in the slightly anomalous position of Feta having the governance of the bridge but the funding came from a third party."

He said Feta needed to "reprioritise" its plans, and did so with the safety of users and staff as its first concern.

Labour MSP Dave Stewart asked: "If work had been carried out, might this have avoided the bridge closing last year?"

Mr Colford replied: "Well, as an engineer I don't really want to answer hypothetical questions but all I can say is that we had intended at that point to replace the truss end links. We made the decision (not to go ahead) but the decision was made because of the spending review."

Ms Hinds told the committee: "I personally, and I am sure a few other people, have been quite upset about the headlines regarding Feta.

"On the one hand we are being blamed for not carrying out work on the truss end links five years ago, even though we did not make the cut in the funding.

"On the other hand, this failure is nothing to do with that work - it is not where the fault occurred. It can't be both."

She also suggested the decision to remove the tolls on the bridge in 2008 "wasn't thought through" and said "the money (to maintain the bridge) had to come from somewhere, and it had to come from Transport Scotland and the Scottish Government."