Engineers are aiming to have the Forth Road Bridge reopened to all vehicles on January 4, it can be revealed.
The Courier has been told that MSPs were given the target date during a briefing meeting with specialists, Transport Scotland, and bridge operators Amey on Monday.
Work has now started on the main repair after a truss end link cracked on the vital structure more than a week ago, leaving businesses and commuters facing traffic nightmares, particularly in Fife.
It is understood that engineers reckon that, barring any seriously adverse weather, the bridge will be operational in three weeks’ time.
Labour and the SNP have clashed over the cause of the fracture after the opposition party released an email at the weekend which showed “abnormal” heavy loads were banned from the bridge in February.
It revealed former chief engineer Barry Colford ordered restrictions on the passage of vehicles weighing more than 150 tonnes after analysis of the loading on the bridge’s truss end links.
Transport Minister Derek Mackay accused Labour of playing political games with the closure.
He said: “I’ll be open, accountable and transparent to anybody on this issue of the closure, but you know I’ve come to the conclusion that Labour are deliberately misinterpreting and twisting the facts for their own petty, party political gain and I find that quite unacceptable.
“The priority right now, should be to reopen that bridge, mitigate the impact on the community as I’m doing and focus on that and I won’t have the engineers distracted by the party games that Labour wishes to play.
“I’ve mobilised every resource to get that bridge opened as quickly as possible and that’s what the community wants.”
But Labour’s deputy leader, Cowdenbeath MSP Alex Rowley, has called on the Scottish Government to publish all documentation relating to maintenance work on the Forth Road Bridge and challenged ministers about budget cuts to the bridge.
In a letter to Mr Mackay, he said: “We need all the documentation emails, letter, minutes of meetings and all forms of communication to be placed in the public domain.
“It is vital that this documentation is released as soon as possible, in the interests of transparency. I should be grateful if you would confirm when you will release the information and the manner in which it will be made available to the public.
“The people inconvenienced by the closure of the Forth Road Bridge need to know how we got to this position so they can have confidence that it won’t happen again in the future.”