Swing bridge glitch causes Selby delays (From York Press)

Swing bridge glitch causes Selby delays

9:20am Saturday 30th June 2012 in News By Dan Bean , dan.bean@thepress.co.uk

HUNDREDS of motorists were caught in queuing traffic around Selby after the swing bridge on the bypass closed for almost four hours.

The A63 Selby bypass was closed between the A19 at Barlby and the A1041 after an electrical fault caused the mechanism of the swing bridge to remain open.

The incident occurred at about 8am, after the bridge was opened to allow a boat to travel along the River Ouse.

A North Yorkshire County Council spokeswoman said an electrical fault in the bridge mechanism left it stuck in the open position, as motorists waited at both sides to cross.

Mick Trueman runs a car dealership in Station Road, and said his morning commute from North Duffield, which ordinarily takes ten minutes, took him over an hour due to the bridge closure, and could have cost him thousands of pounds in custom.

Mr Trueman said: “I had a client coming from York this morning to see a couple of vehicles, and when he heard about the trouble he phoned me to say he’s not coming.

“I never realised there was a problem until I heard it on the car radio. There were queues right back to Riccall. It’s cost me a customer, worth up to £4,600, unless he comes back another time.”

Selby police were aware of the problem, which was said to have caused tailbacks from the town centre as far as Riccall and Barlby, but were not required to redirect traffic, as electronic warnings were put out on signs around the town to highlight the problems.

This is not the first time the bridge has brought traffic to a standstill - in June 2010, a similar fault led to closure of the road and congestion on the A63, with police called out to turn back rush hour motorists.

The county council spokeswoman said the mechanical failure was fixed by engineers at about 11.40am yesterday.

She said: “Engineers have made temporary repairs to the bridge to allow traffic through.”