LEGAL action has been launched over the collapse of a support cable on Glasgow's "Squinty Bridge".

LEGAL action has been launched over the collapse of a support cable on Glasgow's "Squinty Bridge".

A year after the landmark was closed for six months, supplier Macalloy is accused of supplying faulty steel, poor manufacturing and allegedly providing metal which failed to match test certificates.

Watson Steel, fabricator of the £20.3million bridge, officially known as the Clyde Arc, is suing South Yorkshire-based Macalloy for £1.8m.

Watson was forced to replace all 14 of the 35-metre supporting hangers on the bridge after one crashed on to the carriageway on January 14 last year.

The bridge, funded by Glasgow City Council with Edmund Nuttall as the lead contractor, was just 15 months old and had won one of Scotland's leading awards when it was deemed unsafe.

Watson claims the metal used in the sections which connected the four-tonne hangers to the frame did not match any grades of steel recognised in the UK for general engineering purposes and alleges that it was significantly more brittle than had been specified by Macalloy.

Certificates relating to the steel supplied by Macalloy, which was responsible for the testing of components before delivery, allegedly failed to match results of tests on the steel in the bridge forks taken after the incident, Watson claims.

It is understood Macalloy, who declined to comment, has yet to respond to the claims.