There has been a boom in road building in China in recent years but vehicle use has soared at the same time.

The stalled traffic stretched between Jining in Inner Mongolia and Huai'an in Hebei province, north-west of Beijing, said the Global Times.

The road works which were obstructing traffic are necessary to repair damage caused by an increase in cargo lorries using the highway, the state-run newspaper said.

They are not expected to be finished until mid-September.

The motorway, part of the Beijing-Tibet expressway, is heavily used by lorries carrying coal from Inner Mongolia.