A National Highways manager has told the BBC newly fitted joints on a bridge that turned out to be faulty came as “a surprise for everybody”.

Drivers have faced more than two years of delays since repairs to the M62 Ouse Bridge, near Goole, started in March 2022.

Eight damaged joints that formed part of the repairs now need to be replaced as a “precautionary measure”.

Work has been going on on the bridge since 2022.

Phil Jepps, programme delivery manager at National Highways, explained it is “difficult to say” when the bridge would be fixed and finally free from repairs.

Mr Jepps told BBC Look North: “It’s not what [I] or anyone else expected.

“The joints were completed in October and in the early hours of the Monday morning a member of the public reported that part of the joint plate had been detached.”

Mr Jepps said the manufacturer and installer of the joints had visited the site and said it was “something that they’ve never seen before”.

“It is quite a surprise for everybody that this has actually happened,” he added.

(Picture – National Highways)