Tower Bridge gets stuck open ... again

A large part of central London was gridlocked after Tower Bridge became stuck as it was raised.

Engineers fought for 10 hours to fix one of the iconic bridge's arms - known as bascules - which got stuck after it was raised at 1.40pm to let a tall boat pass through.

It lifted open to let the vessel pass, but then failed to close properly. The bridge was forced to remain in the upright position, meaning traffic and pedestrians could not cross. The incident came six weeks after a similar fault closed the bridge for two hours.

After last night's closure a diversion was set up taking drivers across London and Southwark Bridges, inside the congestion charging zone

Transport for London pledged that the information from its C-charge cameras will be disregarded during the period the bridge was closed.

The pledge came despite an embarrassing error that led to thousands of motorists being wrongly penalised last time a diversion into the zone was set up. TfL fined drivers ?100 for following official diversion signs while Tower Bridge was closed for repairs a fortnight ago.

This time, however, a spokesman for TfL promised motorists will not be charged. "There are problems for motorists, but those who are diverted from Tower Bridge into the congestion charge zone will not have to pay," he said. "If motorists make alternative crossings at the first available points, either London or Southwark Bridge, and then exit the zone by the shortest route, they will not be charged. We have made it clear that procedures must be followed correctly and we are expecting this to be the case this time."

A spokesman for the Corporation of London, which is responsible for the 111-year-old crossing, said: "When we tried to bring the bridge down, the south bascule became stuck. It appears there is a software malfunction. We had been working through the day and night to try and fix the problem, which is similar to a fault we had two weeks ago."

The bridge reopened to traffic at 11.45pm. The RAC said the chaos had been mitigated by the fact it was half term.