A RARE whale which has rose to fame while living in the river Thames could hold up the Lower Thames Crossing.

Highways England wants to build a 2.3 mile tunnel between Thurrock and Kent to cut congestion and needs to do tests and surveys ahead of submitting a planning application.

But project directors have admitted that the presence of Benny the beluga has meant they’ve had to increase the time allocated for their underwater tests.

In a bid not to disturb the rare white whale, their tests had to be “phased”, holding up engineers doing environmental tests.

Benny was first spotted in the Thames in September, and last week he surfaced in Gravesend again.

A Highways England spokesman said: “The protection of wildlife and their habitats is an important priority for us.

“We phased our testing work to ensure we did not disturb Benny.

“He is very unlikely to have any impact on main construction as the tunnel entrances will be a fair distance away from the Thames itself.”

First proposed last year, the crossing will run from the M25 near North Ockendon, cross the A13 at Orsett before crossing under the Thames east of Tilbury and Gravesend.

The crossing is expected to carry 4.5 million heavy goods vehicles a year.

Tim Jones, Highways England project director, added: “The preparation of the development consent order will take a while.

“There is a combination of risks and the resulting management of them becomes a project in its own right.

“One of the biggest risks and challenges is air quality and managing the impact on the local community.

“We even have a whale swimming across the River Thames.”

Belugas, which can grow up to 5.5m, spend most of their time off the coasts of Alaska, Canada and Russia, though they often travel great distances in search of food.

Before Benny, the last sighting of beluga whales in UK waters was in 2015 when they were spotted off the Northumberland coastline, but they left shortly afterwards.

But Benny has surprised locals and environmentalists by hanging around for three months.

Before Benny’s arrival, there had not been a beluga sighting in the Thames since 1913.