A trial to reintroduce HGVs to the Forth Road Bridge has been extended due to its success.

The northbound lanes of the bridge were opened to lorries from 11pm to 4am from February 4 and Transport Scotland has now confirmed the end time will be extended to 5.30am.

A full reopening is expected in March and the extended hours are part of a phased reintroduction of HGVs to the bridge after a structural fault forced its full closure for two weeks in December.

The roads agency said "good progress" had been made on the repair work. The bridge was reopened to cars on December 23.

The new hours for hauliers were trialled on Monday and the structural monitoring installed on the bridge confirmed that the loads were within acceptable ranges.

Transport minister Derek Mackay said: "Work to restore the bridge to its full capacity is continuing at pace and this is another step towards that goal.

"The HGV trial has been running for more than a week now and our careful monitoring shows that we can now allow more vehicles across the bridge.

"It means that more than 90% of traffic has access to the bridge while the strengthening work is carried out by our expert team.

"All indications are that we are on track for the full reopening soon and we will continue to explore options to allow as many HGVs as possible to use the crossing in the meantime."

Amey account director for the Forth Road Bridge Mark Arndt said: "The HGV trial has gone better than we expected, with many drivers taking advantage of the overnight relaxation on a daily basis. We hope that more will benefit from the extended hours.

"We appreciate that the restrictions are frustrating but they are necessary. Our teams continue to work night and day to complete repair works and get the bridge reopened as quickly as we can."