NEWLY-released data has shown that Northumberland has the sixth highest number of “substandard bridges” in the country.

The study released by the RAC Foundation, based on figures from the 2016/17 financial year, showed that Northumberland has 123 bridges classed as substandard – 13 per cent of the county’s bridges.

Substandard bridges are defined as structures which are not fit to carry the heaviest vehicles on the roads. The structures may have weight restrictions or are under programmes of increased monitoring or managed decline.

The number of substandard bridges across the country was found to be 3,441 – slightly higher than the 3,203 identified a year previously.

Director of the RAC Foundation Steve Gooding called the figures “unwelcome, if unsurprising.”

“The road maintenance crisis faced by financially-beleaguered councils is often reported in terms of potholes to be filled, but this research hints at the wide spectrum of things needing attention, including blocked gulleys, overgrown verges and, of course, fragile bridges,” he added.

The RAC Foundation estimated that the one-off cost of bringing all the substandard bridges back up to perfect condition would be around £934m – equivalent to £271,000 per structure.

Northumberland County Council said it has had two successful bids to the national Highway Maintenance Challenge Fund, bringing in an additional £10.6m of maintenance funding to the county.

One of the projects made possible with the extra funding was the masonry arch refurbishment programme (MARP), which received funding in 2015.

Repairs have been carried out on bridges across the county to prevent further deterioration to bridge structures in the future.

Bridges at Bellingham, Bywell and the Tyne Bridge at Hexham are among those which have had structural work carried out by Northumberland County Council.

Hexham railway bridge also had extensive repairs carried out by Network Rail in 2016.

Northumberland County Council said it was improving the condition of over 130 bridges through the MARP programme, ensuring that they will not become subject to weight restrictions in the future due to continued deterioration.

It said it had already repaired 126 bridges through the programme and the remaining four would be completed by March this year.

A Northumberland County Council spokeswoman added: “As one of the largest and most rural counties in England, we have a very long road network and a large number of bridges compared to many other authorities, with a considerable number of these being both ancient and historic.

“Flooding and extreme winter weather have also taken their toll on Northumberland’s road network and structures in recent winters.

“Of the 971 bridges owned by Northumberland County Council, only 25 have signed weight restrictions due to being under strength. A further 56 bridges fail a theoretical structural assessment, but are showing no actual signs of distress from overloading.

“These bridges are monitored closely and are inspected every six months. They are generally on minor rural roads where traffic levels are low and the chances of any significant overloading are remote.

“In past years, we have strengthened substandard bridges on our primary and key routes to ensure that network disruption and diversion for larger vehicles is minimised.”

Professor Dr John Knapton, a consulting civil structural and highway engineer, agreed that the high number of bridges in Northumberland classified as ‘substandard’ is likely to be down to how rural the area is.

“I can imagine why Northumberland might have many; it will have quite a lot of historic bridges, and particularly stone arch bridges, which were installed before the most recent regulations on main roads,” he said.

“They might not be able to carry really heavy eight- wheel trucks and concrete mixing lorries and things like that, but things like parcel delivery vans or deliveries to shops will be fine.

“On the major trunk roads they need to carry those heavy vehicles, but I’m pretty sure there won’t be any weak bridges on major trunk roads, and in some parts of rural Northumberland it’s not really necessary to have those strong bridges.

“It seems to me that rather than something to kind of complain about or be fearful of, it’s something to be quite proud of.

“The bridges which are weak will have signs on for the maximum vehicle weight.

“It’s a splendid area and if you start putting in big, strong bridges, that could look quite ugly compared to the historic bridges which are so in keeping with the surroundings.”