MOTORISTS are being warned of the short-term closure of a County Durham road bridge.

Whorlton Bridge, over the River Tees near Barnard Castle, will be closed from tomorrow to allow Durham County Council to carry out essential maintenance work.

While the bridge is closed, a diversion route will be in place with signs up in the area to warn motorists and direct them to the most appropriate alternative routes.

North of the bridge, this will take drivers east on the A67 to Winston, south on the B6274 over Winston Bridge, south westerly to Ovington and westerly to Wycliffe.

The work is expected to last three days and will be carried out between 7.30am and 4pm daily.

Mark Readman, the council’s highways services manager, said: “We need to carry out maintenance to the bridge and we can only do this with it closed to traffic.

“We appreciate this will cause some inconvenience for people but we will carry out the work as quickly as we can to get the road open again.”