A north-east bridge shut suddenly due to safety concerns will now be closed for 18 months.
Engineers enforce an emergency closure on Park Bridge at Drumoak last month after defects were spotted during a routine inspection.
The bridge carries the C35K road over the River Dee and is a commonly used route for motorists switching between the south and north Deeside roads.
Now Aberdeenshire Council has confirmed the road could be shut until autumn next year to allow repairs to be carried out.
Motorists will now have to make an eight-mile round trip to cross the river further upstream at Durris Bridge, near Crathes.
Cyclists and pedestrians will be able to use the bridge “for the time being”, the authority has said.
The authority has been racked with such problems across the region, with many of its bridges dating back hundreds of years and not designed to cope with modern traffic levels.
Figures from the RAC Foundation reveal that 65 of the 1,800 bridges on the council’s roads are substandard – more than in any other Scottish region.
Aberdeenshire also came 10th in a UK-wide list.
In 2017 the crossing had to be temporarily shut because roads bosses feared it would be unable to cope with the additional volume of traffic caused by the closure of the nearby Maryculter Bridge for AWPR works.
Abbeyton Bridge near Fourdoun was demolished on Christmas Day because it was deemed dangerous.
Another bridge in the village has been closed since November after inspections revealed further damage to an embankment after the demolition of a house.
And Gairnshiel Bridge, in Donside, has had to be closed repeatedly over the past year because of structural damage, forcing drivers to take a 24-mile detour.
The authority plans to replace the bridge and close the existing one to traffic.
The new crossing will not, however, be built for another two years.
