IT was a hellish day for traffic yesterday after a fault on the M6 Thelwall Viaduct closed the motorway for around nine hours.

Three lanes of the road were shut after reports of a problem with the bridge at around 1pm, leaving motorists queueing for hours and causing severe congestion on routes through the town centre.

The northbound carriageway finally reopened just after 10.30pm.

One driver, who asked not to be named, crossed the viaduct just before emergency services were called to the scene and said: “There was metal standing up between lanes two and three and cars starting to pull up on the hard shoulder.

“It looked like some plates had come loose which would cause lots of damage if you drove over them. One car looked like it was completely leaning to the side.

“It just looked like a massive hole in the road.”

A spokesman for Highways England said emergency repair work was required to fix an expansion joint, which runs across the width of the bridge and helps the viaduct deal with movement from heavy vehicles and temperature changes.

The joint had come loose and the road was closed for safety reasons while engineers worked to mend the problem.

A spokesman for Highways England said: “We will continue to carry out regular checks of our bridges along with maintenance work when needed, with the aim of preventing similar issues from occurring in the future.”