Renfrewshire Council says it is covered for the damage Storm Boelo did to Renfrew Bridge, whatever investigators finally decide caused it.
The update came at Monday's special council meeting, which the Labour group called after the bridge was shut to drivers, cyclists and pedestrians on Wednesday 28 October.
Answering a question about liability, Mark Conaghan, the council's head of corporate governance, said: "The bridge is effectively insured twice. We are insured for matters arising from defects and we are insured in more general terms against general damage, so that includes weather-related damage."
He added: "That comes with the benefit that irrespective of what ultimately is established here, whether this is simply flood-related or whether it is a design defect, the council has cover. It does complicate matters because we are having to deal with two insurers, rather than one, and there will obviously be discussions as to which of those two insurers are ultimately liable."
Mr Conaghan said officers are meeting the contractors and insurers every week, most recently last Friday, and that "investigations are still ongoing in respect of the exact cause".
What went wrong
The bridge has two plant rooms, one on the Renfrew side and one on the Yoker side. They were built to the same specification and height, and the river level was the same on both banks during the storm, but only the Renfrew-side room let in water.
That room holds the electronic systems that control the bridge hydraulics, which let it open and close quickly for river traffic. A report to last week's infrastructure, land and environment policy board said those systems suffered significant water damage and need a detailed root-cause investigation before repairs can be scoped.
Because the bridge is still within its two-year defects period, the council has formally instructed the contractor to identify any defect that could explain so much water getting into a single plant room so quickly. The report to Monday's meeting said only that "investigations remain ongoing".
Mr Conaghan told councillors: "From what I can see, we absolutely are in a position where we are covered for the damage but we just have to establish what the root cause of that was to decide which insurance policy is at play."
The 184-metre twin-leaf bridge linking Renfrew and Yoker opened in May 2025 as the centrepiece of the £117 million Clyde Waterfront and Renfrew Riverside project. River traffic is still running normally while the crossing stays closed to road users, and the council has not yet given a reopening date.