The North East is facing a backlog of more than half a billion pounds to fix bridges falling into a state of disrepair.

Almost 200 bridges across the region have been identified as being substandard, but budget constraints mean fewer than 30 will have the necessary repairs carried out.

The substandard bridges are those which are too weak to be used by 44-tonne lorries. Many are subject to weight restrictions, while others are under programmes of increased monitoring or even managed decline.

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Some are substandard because they were built to earlier design standards, while others have deteriorated through age and use.

A total of 182 bridges across the North East were flagged by local authorities as being substandard, almost 4.5% of all bridges in the region.

And in County Durham one bridge partially collapsed in the 2021/22 year.

Between them, councils across the region said they would ideally want to bring 148 of them back up to full capacity.

But budget constraints meant they anticipate just 29 will have the necessary work carried out on them within the next five years.

Figures suggest it would cost the taxpayer a massive £535m to bring them back into a good condition.

The analysis was based on data provided by 196 councils in response to freedom of information requests, and was carried out in partnership with Adept, a group representing local authority bosses responsible for transport and other sectors.

Gateshead and Stockton were the only parts of the North East with no substandard bridges.

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North Tyneside had the greatest proportion of substandard bridges, with 18% of crossings in the council area in a poor condition.

Hartlepool Council failed to provide data suitable to include in the study.

RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said: “This latest study shows the scale of the challenge local authorities are valiantly wrestling with to protect the critical road infrastructure we all rely on in the context of huge funding and resource pressures.

“The numbers illustrate how important it is for significant sums of money to be spent tackling at least the higher priority work.

“There is only so long that councils can continue to patch things up before bigger cracks literally start to appear in the road network.”

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Cllr David Renard, transport spokesperson for the Local Government Association added: “Bridges, whether for rail, local highways or motorways, are a vital part of our transport infrastructure that connect communities and business.

“Not all bridges are the responsibility of councils, but for those that are, they are doing their best to ensure they are well maintained and withstand extreme weather, the like of which communities have been experiencing for much of the last few months. However, this is becoming increasingly challenging in the face of a backlog of nearly £12 billion to bring our local roads up to scratch.”

Nationally 3,090 bridges were identified as substandard at the end of last year with the cost of repairs coming in at more than £4.2bn.

A spokesperson for the Department for Transport said: “The Government is providing more than £5 billion of investment over this Parliament to local authorities across England to support the maintenance of their local highway infrastructure, including the repair of bridges and the resurfacing of roads up and down the country.”