Drivers and buses will face six weeks of disruption as vital repairs are carried out on a Croydon railway bridge.

Work on the bridge close to Reedham Station will give it a ‘maintenance-free life’ for up to 20 years, according to Network Rail.

A public meeting about the disruption was held in February where residents were asked to consider whether they wanted to see a full road closure, just week or night closures in Old Lodge Lane.

An update from local councillors Samir Dwesar and Gayle Gander said: “Network Rail and their contractor BAM Nuttall have now finalised the plans, and letters are being delivered to properties in the area shown in the map below.

"Needless to say, a closure of this nature will affect people far and wide and so we wanted to update residents on the plans.”

Network Rail has outlined that works will involve using high-pressure water jets to remove corrosion and steelwork repairs to strengthen the bridge.

Also included are repairs repairing bricks and installing mesh to stop birds nesting under the bridge.

All work on the bridge is taking place overnight when trains are not running to avoid disruption to services.

Network Rail said: “These works have been carefully planned to implement as much of the noisy works as possible during the series of weekends and the quieter works during weekday nights.

"There will still be some noise during the mid-week night works, but every effort will be made to minimise this.”

A work site in a nearby school field will start being set up on Monday (May 22).

The first of four weekends of work will start on May 26, running until June 19 which will take place between the hours of 11pm and 5am.

During this time a shuttle bus will run from Tesco in Purley to Old Lodge Lane to replace regular bus services.

Pedestrians will still be able to access the area through a protected tunnel.

On weeknights between June 19 and July 7 work will take place from 11.30pm until 5.30am.

During these times buses won’t run through Old Lodge Lane.

Between July 10 and July 14 the compound site in the school playing fields will be dismantled.

This work will take place between 7.10am and 5.30pm.