The decision to shelve plans to replace parts of the Forth Road Bridge - including the area containing the defect which caused the December closure - was taken without interference from the Scottish Government, MSPs have been told.

The committee previously heard the 2010/11 plan to replace the truss end links at a cost of £10 million to £15 million did not go ahead because budget cuts in the 2011 spending review had impacted on former operator Forth Estuary Transport Authority's (Feta) capital budget.

Holyrood's Infrastructure Committee was told there was no evidence government department Transport Scotland had influenced Feta's decision to pull the plug on a tender to appoint consultants to look at the works.

The seized pin, which caused the shutdown of the bridge for almost three weeks, was not the primary reason for the truss end links work, but the project, if it had gone ahead, would have seen the pins replaced anyway.

Appearing before the committee as it continues its inquiry into the closure, transport minister Derek Mackay said Feta had concluded they could "rescope the works" after taking into account factors such as disruption and cost and affordability.

The bridge operator then pulled an advert tendering for consultants to look at the links replacement project.

"Prioritisation was a matter for Feta, independent of Scottish Government, but certainly anything that had been critical would have been funded," he said.

He added: "The decision to proceed or not proceed on the tendering for consultants for that work was a matter for Feta, and it is not the case that the Scottish Government said not to proceed with that."

The bridge operator had the funds to appoint the consultants, he said.

Wayne Hindshaw, chief bridge engineer of Transport Scotland, said: "There is no evidence of interference or influence ... of decision-making in this matter."

He added it should not be presumed that full truss end replacement would have gone ahead anyway, even if consultants had been appointed.