Following nearly a week of traffic disruption, Great Yarmouth's Third River Crossing is scheduled to reopen this afternoon.

The £121m Herring Bridge has been closed for investigations since Thursday after a "minor technical fault" caused it to be stuck for half an hour last Wednesday.

Engineers identified a fault with a sensor on the bridge’s locking mechanism that was preventing the operating system from functioning correctly.

The bridge is now due to reopen later today (Tuesday).

Great Yarmouth Mercury: Graham Plant, Norfolk County Council cabinet member for highways, transport and infrastructure.Graham Plant, Norfolk County Council cabinet member for highways, transport and infrastructure. (Image: Jamie Honeywood)Graham Plant, Norfolk County Council's lead on transport and highways, said: "Thank you for your patience whilst Herring Bridge has been temporarily out of action.

"Public safety will always be paramount, which is why the bridge was quickly taken out of normal operation to allow a full investigation to take place. But we are pleased to report this issue has now been rectified and all safety checks completed.

"The bridge will resume full operation this afternoon, ahead of the evening rush hour."

Mr Plant added that further issues with the Herring Bridge are not expected. However, engineers will continue to monitor the bridge's performance as "some initial teething troubles are to be expected on a structure of this complexity".

Mr Plant reiterated that the project's contract specified an initial operation period and extended maintenance arrangements with the main contractors to ensure any such issues are "completely ironed out" before the bridge is fully handed over to the council.

Great Yarmouth Mercury: One bridge leaf was raised on Friday while investigations took place. Picture - Denise BradleyOne bridge leaf was raised on Friday while investigations took place. Picture - Denise Bradley (Image: Denise Bradley)
"The current downtime has also provided us with an opportunity to carry out further planned tests and checks alongside the fault investigation to reduce the need for any further disruption in the future," Mr Plant added.
 
"Once again we apologise for any inconvenience caused by last week’s sudden closure and we hope everyone can now continue to enjoy the fantastic benefit this new bridge brings to our local transport network."

The latest disruption comes just seven weeks after bridge officially opened on February 1. It was unexpectedly closed during its opening weekend.