Nearly a quarter of a million pounds will be spent refurbishing a footbridge.

Rickmansworth Park Footbridge, which crosses the A412, will be cleaned, repainted and repaired at the cost of £220,000.

Hertfordshire County Council said the repainting is necessary to protect it against future corrosion, which could lead to the bridge being replaced.

Work will take around 35 days depending on the weather and the A412 will be restricted to one lane in each direction between February 20 and April 7, between 9.30am and 4pm. The bridge will remain open to the public, with the exception of a few night closures.

Terry Douris, cabinet member for highways, said: “These works form part of Hertfordshire County Council's ongoing commitment to maintain and improve our roads for the benefit of all road users in Hertfordshire.

"There is never a good time to do large-scale works of this nature, but the bridge will be coming to a point where we have this opportunity to protect the long-term viability of the bridge and we have a duty to make sure that all road users are safe.

“We’ve made every effort to schedule these works when they’ll be the least disruption, but we do appreciate that road users will still experience some delays.”