Lane closure

On Tuesday 28 June, a section of the southbound lane will be closed and traffic will be diverted into a contra-flow system.

Between 6am and 6pm, work will be taking place to install a variable message sign on the southbound verge between the Chapel Lane bridge and Jurassic Roundabout.

The southbound lane in this area will be coned off:

• Vehicles travelling into Weymouth will be directed into the middle lane
• Drivers from Littlemoor and Manor Roundabout will be directed to merge in turn and move into the lefthand crawler lane

Traffic cones

You may have noticed traffic cones being placed out on the relief road this morning in the Chapel Lane area.

They were put in place so that traffic monitoring equipment could be installed.

Work was also carried out later on at the opposite end of the road, near Veasta Roundabout, to install a car park guidance sign (part of the Weymouth Transport Package showcase element).

Bridleway open

Chapel Lane bridleway is now open, which means that walkers and riders can head from Chapel Lane all the way to Bincombe Lane on this upgraded route.

Work is continuing on many other footpaths and bridleways for the scheme, and the blog will be kept updated with the progress of these.

Work in August

August is a key month for the project – final drainage is being put in, and we aim to have the tarmac in place from the Ridgeway to Littlemoor bridge by the end of the month.

We will have finished Chapel Lane bridge, Southdown Ridge bridge and Lorton Lane bridge (apart from the final planting of trees and shrubs, which will all start in early winter). We’ll also have finished all the work that can currently be done on the Ridgeway bridge.

Work is well underway on the remaining four roundabouts for the scheme, and the picture shows the smallest of these – the roundabout leading to the Park and Ride.

We’re also finishing major earth moving for the project. ‘Mount Lodmoor’, the large pile of earth you can see in this picture, is the final cover layer for Lodmoor landfill and the Park and Ride site.

Surfacing latest

The first layers of tarmac for the Relief Road have been laid from the Ridgeway south towards Icen Lane – here you can see the section underneath Chapel Lane bridge heading north.

Chapel Lane bridge is also currently being surfaced, and there are only a couple of weeks of work remaining to put in kerbing and drainage before this bridleway can be reopened.

July

June was a good month for the project, with fine weather meaning the bulk earth moving for the project has been finished.

During July the earthworks will be ‘trimmed’ to get the final levels for embankments and roundabouts correct. The main areas for this are Ridgeway, the balancing ponds at Littlemoor and the southern part of the scheme by Manor Railway bridge, Two Mile Coppice and Lodmoor.

Black-top

Driving into Weymouth on the A354 you can see the ‘black-top’ being laid in the Ridgeway area.

Thanks to the current good weather, around 1,000 tonnes a day – 50 lorry loads – of black-top is being put down.

Between five and seven tonnes of material is needed per linear metre.

For the relief road – including roundabouts, side roads, park and ride and footpaths – that’s around 70,000 tonnes (3500 lorries) in total.

While this material is being laid through Ridgeway, chalk stabilisation is being carried out through the Chapel Lane area.

Did you know…

The Chapel Lane bridge may look rusty, but don’t panic as it’s weathering steel which is often used in bridge construction.

We’re using this material to build the bridge otherwise the steel would have to be painted and maintained, resulting in possible temporary lane closures.

So thanks to having a rusty bridge we don’t have to close the road!

Beams up

It’s been a busy week at Chapel Lane, with the beams for the Chapel Lane bridge being lifted into place.

Because of its long span – the longest of all the relief road bridges – the gap is bridged by joining two steel beams together.

In this picture you can see the temporary trestle structures supporting the beams while they are fixed into place.

Big beams arrive

The beams for the Chapel Lane bridge have been delivered and they will be lifted into place once temporary supports have been built.

This bridge has the longest span – over 40 metres – of the relief road bridges. It will keep access open to farm buildings, which the road would otherwise sever.