With autumn now upon us the remaining batch of soft landscaping has begun in earnest.
The clearance and eradication of perennial weed growth is underway, preparing the ground for the final seeding and planting works.
The Bincombe junction area, Littlemoor Road and the Park & Ride are the main focus of works, consisting of amenity and agricultural grass seeding and native tree and shrub planting.
Another event as part of this years European Mobility Week is the launch of the Electric Vehicle Charging Points at the Mount Pleasant Park and Ride in Weymouth.
On Saturday 17 September, join the Travel Choice team between 10am and 4pm in New Bond Street, Weymouth Town Centre to find out more about electric vehicles and sit in a Nissan Leaf or try out an electric bicycle.
Further information on how the charging points work is now available.
Dorset County Council will be laying on an extended park and ride service for people enjoying Weymouth Carnival on Wednesday 17 August.
The service will operate as normal until the Esplanade closes at 4.45pm, with the last day services at 4.15pm from the Mount Pleasant Park and Ride site and 4.30pm from the Pavilion.
Six buses – double the usual three – will then run non-stop throughout the evening ferrying passengers to and from the Carnival events.
The park and ride car park will remain open into the evening, with the overflow parking area open to provide up to 1,000 spaces.
The charge will remain at the summer rate of £3.50, which includes the journey to and from Weymouth for a driver and up to six passengers.
This Saturday the new Mount Pleasant Park and Ride in Weymouth will open.
The 1,000 space site is ideally situated at the southern end of the A354 Weymouth Relief Road, with buses running every 15 minutes into Weymouth town centre.
The Mount Pleasant Park and Ride is continuing to take shape, work is ongoing to connect the electricity supply to power the lighting and park and ride building.
It is hoped the site will be open in July. Elsewhere in the area, the Mercery link road and Harriers’ Roundabout are nearly complete and will be open in July.
The new Littlemoor Road now has traffic running along most of it and work is underway to complete the tie-ins with the side roads and the shared footway/cycleways in the area. This work should be finished by the end of August.
The remaining section of the Weymouth to Dorchester cycleway – between Bincombe and the Ridgeway bridge – is still being built and should be open in early August.
The end arch sections for the Bincombe underbridge are now in place and the edge beams are being constructed; work is continuing to realign the Dorchester Road connection with Bincombe Lane, which passes under the new road.
The Bincombe junction is currently programmed to be fully open in mid August.
Work on the Mount Pleasant Park and Ride is continuing but issues with getting an electricity supply to the site has delayed its opening.
The site was originally programmed to open towards the end of this month. It is now more likely that the park and ride will open in July.
In the meantime we are pleased to say that the following operational details have been confirmed:
The park and ride will be open daily between April and September and open Monday to Saturday from October to March, with the site closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.
Buses will start at:
Buses will run every 15 minutes and the last bus back will usually leave Weymouth Pavilion at 6.15pm.
Daily charges will be seasonal and be either £1.50, £2.50 or £3.50, depending on the time of year.
The timetable and further information will be available shortly.
Although the main carriageway has been opened, work is continuing to finish other areas of the scheme.
The park and ride is programmed to be open during late May, as will the remaining cycleway links in the Lodmoor area.
Work is continuing on the new Littlemoor Road. The ‘off-line’ sections of road, which don’t currently have any traffic running on them, will be finished during May.
Work will then start on the complicated tie-in where the new road crosses the existing road near to Gould’s Garden Centre. It is likely that extensive traffic management will be needed to complete this small joining section.
The new cycleways along Littlemoor Road will be finished as the adjacent road work is completed. All the Littlemoor Road works should be finished by the end of July.
The Bincombe junction is programmed to open during July, as is the section of cycleway between the old hairpin bend and the Ridgeway bridge.
During the autumn any outstanding planting will be finished.
The welcome to Weymouth ‘pineapples’ have been relocated as a gateway to the park and ride site.
Due to the sensitive nature of the northern part of the scheme, where the road design has had to be carefully managed, it has been deemed that it is no longer appropriate for the pineapples to be sited in that area.
There were also issues with sight lines, and the need for crash barriers, if placed near the main carriageway.
The relief road is also largely in West Dorset, so suitable sites on the section of road in the borough were scarce.
You may have noticed temporary lights on the Ridgeway section of the relief road.
These give works access onto the old diversionary road at an entrance near to Swallows Rest. The temporary roads surface is being planed off and being used in the park and ride site.
Most of the time the lights will be on green on the relief road, they will be manually operated at all times and will not be used at weekends.
The lights will be in place until Friday 8 April.
At the end of last week, work started to surface the park and ride site.
Good progress has also been made on the park and ride building, which has toilet facilities and a sheltered waiting area.
Also at the southern end of the scheme, the grass on the new rugby pitches is looking good and work is continuing to finish Harriers’ Roundabout.
The park and ride will hopefully be open in early May.
