Three new crossings over the River Orwell near Ipswich town centre should be open by 2023, county councillors have been told.

Members of the county’s scrutiny committee looked at the way the project to build the three new crossings in Ipswich and a new bascule bridge in Lowestoft would be managed.

Most of the funding for the bridges will come from central government – but £19.1m of the cost of the Ipswich crossings and £18.3m of the cost of the Lowestoft bridge will have to be found locally.

The county has already committed to spending £10m on each crossing. Assistant director for infrastructure Bryn Griffiths said it was committed for fully funding the schemes – but a decision on where the final funding would come from did not need to be made yet.

A competition has been run between architects to design new crossings for Ipswich – and the results are expected to be announced very soon.