ESSENTIAL engineering work costing £320,000 by Railtrack on two road-over-railway bridges in the Vale of Evesham has begun.

Work on the bridge at Fladbury started on Sunday and work on Pershore Station bridge, will begin in the middle of November.

Scheduled work will strengthen both bridges to meet Highway Authority standards determined by Worcestershire County Council and Railtrack and will include brickwork repairs, vegetation clearance and, at Fladbury, the refurbishment of the footpath.

In both cases, work is likely to take about eight weeks to complete and there will be periods when roads will be partially closed and traffic lights put in place. At Fladbury, traffic lights will also be used to divert the footpath onto the road.

Railtrack project manager Anna Cornish said: "We would like to apologise to motorists for any inconvenience caused while traffic lights are in place and work is carried out.

"However, our aim at Railtrack is to provide a safe and reliable rail infrastructure and this bridge strengthening work forms an important part of that commitment."

The work is part of a multi-million pound strengthening and replacement programme to bring key bridges in line with a new EU directive that requires them to have a load-bearing capacity of 40 tonnes.