A Highland councillor has said that the public should have been warned in advance of increased delays during road surfacing works at the Kessock Bridge.
Queues stretched back as far as Allangrange junction on the Black Isle after temporary traffic lights were put in place on the southbound carriageway entrance to the bridge.
The surfacing works started on Sunday as part of the £13.2million improvement programme and were completed last night.
A steady flow of lorries have been delivering the tar – known as gussasphalt – to the roadworks site, ready for use by a specialist machine.
The traffic lights, which were being manned by one person on the bridge, stopped vehicles for one minute at regular intervals to allow the lorries to exit the site and rejoin the main carriageway.
This and the tendency for drivers to rubberneck when passing the unusual machine, is thought to have caused the extended delays.
More than 1,500 tonnes of gussasphalt have been laid on the southbound carriageway so far.
Councillor Isobel McCallum, Black Isle, said that she was stuck in an unexpected queue at the Munlochy junction at 10.30am yesterday morning.
She added: “It would be very helpful if they had put the information out and explained that today there would be an additional delay. I think that would be really helpful because people have appointments and they will leave earlier if required.
Calum Galloway, bridges manager for Bear Scotland’s north west unit, said: “Since carriageway surfacing works started today, slightly longer delays have been experienced by motorists.
“Normally we would see delays ease after the morning peak but motorists have been slowing down to look at the unusual machine laying the surface. We encourage motorists to maintain a steady flow of traffic through the works to avoid extended delays.
“The carriageway surfacing works finish this evening with surfacing works continuing on the footpaths and cycle path from tomorrow.
However, this will not require the large surfacing machine used for the carriageway works. We expect delays to lessen but traffic will remain busy.
A Bear Scotland spokesman said that the works are on schedule for completion by June.