Transport Scotland has told MSPs that it knew of faults with the Queensferry Crossing in August, prior to the opening of the Bridge, but a decision was made to press ahead with the opening.
Problems with the surface of the bridge, caused by workman error, have now caused the bridge to close temporarily in one direction.
Transport Scotland also told the Scottish Parliamentary Committee on Rural Economy and Connectivity that there could be further lane closures yet until September 2018 for other "finishing and snagging" works.
None of these issues were included in information to the public during the multi-million pound opening experience of the crossing and despite knowing about the potential closure in August, motorists were only told of the closures on Monday of this week, with just a few days’ notice.
Commenting on the revelations, Jamie Greene MSP, Scottish Conservative transport spokesman said:
“Motorists and commuters must be dismayed. This SNP government opened the bridge with a £1.5M celebration party and used it as a symbol of their stewardship of the country.
“All the while they knew that there were problems with the road surface, that these problems would have to be fixed and the bridge would have to be closed shortly after opening it.
“At no point were road users, whose daily lives are now thrown into disarray, informed that there were impending closures. To make matters worse, we now know that there are potentially more closures to come.
“Commuters just wanted a bridge that would get them to work on time.
“There are some serious questions to be answered as to how shoddy workmanship passed quality control checks prior to opening in the first place; whether or not these errors were as a result of pressure to speed up the works and whether there was any political pressure on the contractors to open despite Ministers being made aware of potential faults and snags.
“It is abundantly clear that the SNP was far more preoccupied with spending taxpayers money on party planning than actually delivering a vital infrastructure development fit for purpose from day one.
“This bridge fiasco is absolutely symbolic of a feckless SNP government which thrives on self-congratulatory indulgence at the expense of the tax-paying public.”