Road lanes on a busy St Albans road closed for bridge repairs have reopened ahead of schedule.

A lane in each direction on the A414 dual carriageway had been closed since July 13 while repairs were carried out to the Napsbury Lane bridge which crosses over the road between the London Colney and Park Street roundabouts, close to Aylett Nurseries.

The lane closures were scheduled to last 16 weeks but they have been reopened open at peak periods.

Terry Douris, the county council’s cabinet member for highways, said: “We’ve made a huge effort to minimise disruption for road users during these essential bridge repairs and part of that has been working closely with our contractor to quickly get to a stage where we can re-open the lanes on the A414.

“We scheduled the bulk of the work to take place during the school holidays but we were mindful that a portion of the job would still fall into the busy September period when the schools return for the autumn term.”

Although the lanes are now open at peak times, work is still ongoing to repair the bridge and some full night-time and daytime off-peak closures will still be required.