South Holland motorists braced for long delays when work starts at Sutton Bridge's Cross Keys Bridge

Highways bosses say they will try to keep disruption to traffic to a minimum when repair work starts on Cross Keys Bridge in Sutton Bridge later this month.

Lincolnshire County Council will be starting a £1.5 million project to paint and repair the bridge on February 28 and works are likely to last 18 weeks, as we reported last week.

Motorists are warned to expect delays as most works will take place at road level with temporary traffic lights while the bridge remains open to shipping.

The bridge is only link to Norfolk from Lincolnshire and long queues of traffic were seen in the area the last time works were undertaken at the crossing in 2019 - with the only possible diversion through Wisbech.

Coun Richard Davies, executive member for highways, said: “These works are essential for the continued life and usefulness of the bridge.

“We are working extremely hard to minimise the amount of disruption that road users will face over the coming months and have liaised with other authorities to ensure that the work we carry out will not be impacted further by works in their areas.

“I would like to thank everyone who travels across the bridge, or in the immediate area, for their continued patience whilst these works are carried out.”

The county says that it is nearly two decades since the bridge was last painted and during that time a combination of tidal salt water and high volumes of traffic have seen the existing paint deteriorate. Because of this the new painting programme is happening to continue protection of the structure’s steelwork.

The current programme of works is scheduled to run from February 28 to July 1 inclusive. Those dates are based on favourable weather conditions and longer daylight hours as the scheme progresses.

The bridge itself has to remain operational for shipping movements and the River Nene is a major route for this sort of transport. Most of the works at road level will cause the use of temporary traffic lights with an advisory diversion route in place.

There will also be some overnight road closures. These will happen when particularly difficult areas of the bridge are being painted – such as the ends of the bridge itself.

Because public holidays fall within the proposed works programme we will, on those days, remove traffic management and open the road fully to further reduce the amount of disruption to those using the route.