Contractors were forced to rethink their traffic plans for the Kessock Bridge last night after frustrated motorists were left in queues up to nine miles long.
Warnings of hold-ups on the crossing proved well founded as commuters were delayed for up to 50 minutes at the peak rush hour 8am to 9am.
Motorists were stuck in long tailbacks on the southbound dual carriageway, stretching from the bridge to a mile north of the Tore roundabout, as phase two of the major five-month refurbishment began. At one point, there were reports of drivers using gaps in the crash barriers to make U-turns in an attempt to switch routes.
Last night, contractor Bear Scotland said it hoped to reduce queuing by shortening the priority outside lane for buses and large HGVs on the southbound carriageway from Tore to North Kessock.
One Highland councillor called last night for better traffic management and again urged commuters to switch to alternative modes of transport.
Helen Carmichael, who represents Aird and Loch Ness, said she had hoped the contractors would have learned lessons from the problems last year during the first phase of repair work.
She said: “People travelling to and from Inverness will have to seriously consider car sharing or taking public transport, otherwise they are going to have to sit in queues for an hour.
“But the traffic also has to be managed better than it was this morning.”
There was another test for the system last night as commuters tried to make their way home.
Queues started to form along Longman Road from about 5.45pm but delays were estimated at only 10 minutes or so.
The work, the second and final stage of a £13.2million project, is due to last until June.
More than 33,000 vehicles use the bridge every day and contractors have promised the new surface will last for 25 years.
Yesterday morning, some motorists took to online social media sites to complain about the delays.
One woman said: “The queue for the Kessock Bridge is ridiculous.”
Another woman said: One driver said he had seen a car being pulled over by police after using the priority lane to overtake a long queue of traffic between Tore and North Kessock.
The speed limit on the southbound carriageway during the work is just 50mph, dropping to 30mph through the contra-flow on the bridge.
Calum Galloway, Bear Scotland’s bridges manager for the north-west, said: “During the morning peak on day one of the works, delays averaged 45 minutes to 50 minutes. We are monitoring the delays and will continue to seek ways of minimising them.
“One change that we will implement ahead of tomorrow’s peak is to change the length of the bus lane leading up to the bridge.
“It will be shortened to allow general traffic to use both lanes for longer before segregating cars and buses/HGVs over 7.5 tonnes and reduce the length of queues to an extent. We apologise for inconvenience caused. These are essential works.”