Herring Bridge: New Great Yarmouth crossing suffers technical fault

A fault on the Herring Bridge in Great Yarmouth is being investigated

A £121m bridge broke down just two days after its official opening, leading to an apology to road and river users.

A technical issue on the Herring Bridge in Great Yarmouth saw road vehicles forced to use alternative crossings for a "few hours" on Saturday and Sunday, Norfolk County Council said.

Further tests have had to be carried out by engineers on Monday morning.

Road users may continue to expect delays while the issue gets fully resolved, the council added.

The town's Haven Bridge also encountered some issues on Friday.

The new Herring Bridge, which officially opened on Thursday, is Great Yarmouth's third river crossing and connects road users from the east Norfolk port to the A47.

Herring Bridge Control will operate the bridge 24 hours a day, 365 days a year

Norfolk County Council said in a statement: "A technical issue with Herring Bridge was identified by the operators on Saturday afternoon, which meant that the bridge was temporarily closed to road traffic for a few hours over Saturday and Sunday to allow for investigations and testing to be carried out, although for the most part the crossing has remained available for use by road traffic."

It added that opening and closing the new bridge was "taking slightly longer than would usually be expected".

"We are continuing to work on getting the bridge operating as usual as a matter of urgency and we hope to be able to provide a further update on this on Monday afternoon.

"We apologise for any inconvenience or frustration this issue has caused to river and road users and we are working with our contractor to try to minimise the risk of a similar issue occurring again in the future."

The Herring Bridge officially opened on 1 February