Four traffic lanes are now (Saturday) operating on the Tamar Bridge following the successful completion of the resurfacing works on the north side of the main deck.

The new arrangements, which will remain in place until the evening of Monday (August 30) to help ease congestion over the remainder of the bank holiday weekend, provide two eastbound lanes and two westbound lanes. The centre lane of the main deck will remain closed throughout the period.

The four lanes were originally due to be opened on Friday afternoon but this was temporarily delayed following a problem with the quality of some of the specialist surfacing material provided by a local batching plant.

A repacement batch of the specialist asphalt material was delivered to the bridge late yesterday afternoon. This was then laid last night, with the new surface left to ‘cure’ until this morning.

Teams from VolkerLaser and Aeschlimann were on site earlier this morning to carry out final checks on the surface and install the new traffic management arrangements to support the opening of the four lanes.

The opening of the four lanes has been welcomed by Councillors Jonathan Drean and Martin Worth, the Joint Chairs of the Tamar Bridge and Torpoint Ferry Joint Committee.

They said: “We were very disappointed at the delay to the planned opening of the four lanes on Friday afternoon. We had done everything we could to ensure all four lanes were available for the Bank Holiday traffic, and apologise for the delay which was needed to ensure the safe opening of the lanes.

“We are pleased to be able to open the extra lane on the main deck today. This will provide two lanes in each direction to help manage the extra traffic generated by the bank holiday and reduce traffic build-up and delays for local residents, people going to work, bus and coach companies, hauliers and other local businesses, as well as for those visiting the county."

Traffic management arrangements for the next phase of the resurfacing project, which focuses on the south side of the deck, will be introduced on Monday evening so that they are in place for the contractor to start work on Tuesday morning (August 31).

This phase will see the westbound lane and centre lane on the main deck closed to traffic, with the remaining lane used as the tidal flow lane to help manage traffic flows.

The north cantilever will continue to be used for eastbound traffic from Cornwall and for local Saltash traffic, with lane 7 on the toll plaza acting as a tag only lane as normal. The south cantilever will remain open for westbound traffic travelling from Plymouth into Cornwall. The shuttle bus service will continue to operate as normal.