The person in charge of a company working on a maintenance project on Lupu Bridge will be detained for five days for causing serious traffic congestion on Tuesday morning, city traffic police said yesterday.

The company, which was supposed to finish the overnight work by 5am, extended the work hours without permission.

This caused congestion on the city’s elevated roads during morning rush hours.

When the company failed to complete work by 5am, police asked the workers to finish as soon as possible.

But the person in charge, a man surnamed Wang, said it was not possible.

The maintenance work, which occupied two of the three lanes on the main bridge in the direction from Pudong to Puxi, lasted until 8am, causing traffic to back up by several kilometers.

Normal traffic conditions only resumed after 8:45am.

Wang, who works for the construction company from SuzhouCity called Junkun, was summoned for an investigation.

Wang said he made the decision to extend the working hours at 3am after determining it couldn’t be done in time.

He allegedly didn’t inform any authority of his intention.

For “disturbing public order,” Wang was fined 500 yuan (US$71) and will be detained, police said.

All construction and maintenance work which needs to occupy or excavate roads and thus will affect traffic has to be registered with the police for approval. The work is required to be implemented according to the content of the application.

Police warn that all such work without permission will lead to the companies and individuals held responsible to be punished.