So much for thst plan then! I would agree that it would have been a cheap and pretty poor 'fix' for the junction, when much, much more is needed, ie upgrading the whole bypass, which once again this summer has caused some prety bad jams.

Cant see dualling happening any time soon though , and even then dont know what they can do with the Merley Junction. We here on sabre have looked at GSJ-ing on other threads and concluded there just isnt the space, so the best to be hoped for with a D2 bypass would be a roundabout with increased capacity, including filter lanes.

And now it's back on again, because it needs to be done before the Olympics.

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/9 ... oes_ahead/

Andrew

I guess something's better than nothing, but a bit short sighted not to do something at Merley as well and it wouldnt cost much to stick a second carriageway down between canford bottem and ameysford rbts either. if you are pending the money, make it more worthwhile.

I think the complaints are also a bit short sighted as well. A few months of inconvienience in return for an improved junction? Not too much to ask is it? I lived through the Dorchester bypass roundabout works recently over a similar timescale, and it wasnt a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Perhaps wimborne folks would rather nothing was done at all?

The contract has gone to Carillion for this. I watched the BBC South programme the other night (being in the area at the moment) and there really is fury amongst the locals over the suddenness of all this and the problems the total closure is likely to cause. I'm amazed that money is being spent on this one scheme at such a long distance from Weymouth. Surely if you're going to upgrade Canford Bottom, there are loads of other improvements that should go hand-in-hand? What about the A31/A350 (looks like a good candidate for a hamburger too) and the A35 junction at Bere Regis? Are they going to cope? I'm all in favour of development but is this just an ill thought out knee-jerk for the Olympics?

Yes it is. Locals have suggested just closing the 4 other arms of the rbt for the 2 or 3 weeks of the Olympics, leaving the A31 as the only road there and later, building the flyover, which is the only proper long term solution.

I hope there are massive delays to the Olympic participants, causing negative publicity. Perhaps that will jolt them into action for the flyover.

Work has started on this recently, despite local opposition. Went through the junction on Sunday (16th Oct). Nothing much has happened yet, just a lot of cones, narrowed lanes and lower speed limit, just as you would expect. Cant quite see how they intend going about making it a D2 Throughabout at the moment, i have no experience in seeing a roundanbout altered in this way.

Just in case anyone missed it, the new 'hamburger' setup at Canford Bottom on the A31 went 'live' yesterday. Soon after there were 2 minor accidents!!

The more i think about this 'improvement', the more i think it is a waste of money and will do little to improve traffic flows. In fact it may make things worse for A31 traffic, since at times it wil, be deliberately stopped to allow traffic from side roads to access the junction, wheras before the roundabout would (in theory) give all routes an even chance, except of course at peak times when any junction type would have trouble coping. Dualling the A31 through the roundabout might help traffic at that point but without additional dualling either side any advantage is lost when 2 lanes become 1.

I think if they could not afford to build a flyover then the money spent/wasted on the throuabout should have been spent on signalising the roundabout as it was and dualling at least the Ferndown Bypass side of the junction, but ideally as far as Merley.

Along with the altered junctions in weymouth this has primarily been done for Olympic traffic, so that VIPs dont get held up. What chances it is all change again at these junctions when the Games are over?

I think the new junctions will remain. The hamburger will now have grand prix starts every time, as cars use it to pass lorries, handy, especially westbound, as there is no more D2 until after Bere Regis. The official opening is next Tuesday, after tweaking the lights for optimum effect. Still annoying in the late evening though, to be stopped on a clear road.

Feedback from yesterday's rush hour appears to be positive, but I don't know what it was like before.

Just thinking its a pity in a way so many roads meet at canford bottom. if it were just the old A31 route then the solution would be to remove the roundabout and have the local road run underneath the A31. 2 further roads meeting here make that solution so impractical you might just as well build a full gsj.

East and Westbound queues were non-existent at 8am this morning with traffic pretty freeflowing in both directions. Before and during the works the westbound queues at this time have generally been back along the single carriageway bit of the Ferndown Bypass to the roundabout at Ameysford.

Yes, looking forward to trying them out sometime soon. Sounds like the testing is going well ready for tomorrow's official opening. A slight spanner in the works, is a 40 limit through there, which will make overtaking lorries on green difficult.

Readers of the www.bournemouthecho.co.uk have plenty to say about this.
Alisdair1967 seems convinced that "Won't be with us long ,the contract is to revert it back to how it was once Olympics have finished !” then, "It is in the contract of the civil engineers responsible for the works !”
This seems unlikely and yet, if it happened, I wouldn't be surprised.

Everyone else is saying that for non A31 traffic, there are only 3 car or 1 artic spaces between each set of lights. The vehicles there cover up the road markings, so finding the correct lane is impossible. Of course, once they are used to it, they will get angry with non locals confusion.

On the A31 apparently, most are stopping in the inside lane, as happens in so many places. Anyone using the other lane of this D2, is regarded as a queue jumper at the merge in turn bit.

No immediate need to go that way, may go there anyway, just to try it in both directions.

Sounds like anything could happen here and it would be interesting to know exactly how much of an increase in traffic there is at this junction during the Olympic fortnight. The Olympic planners are reckoning on a maximum of 60,000 extra visitors to Weymouth on a handful of key dates, and 500,000 over the fortnight. Of course not all of these will be using the A31 or even coming by road or coming at the same time. Is there really likely to be such an increase in volume as to warrant all these changes and confusion?

The A341/A31 at Merley will apparently be periodically closed during the fortnight in a bid to improve freeflow from Canford - it will be interesting to see how and when the relevant information is communicated to the public.

The Olympic Route Network has alternative routes advised and although none of them look very good, people are bound to use them. (One alternative route appears to use the M4 / A34 / A303 and A37! - madness when you consider what we know about the Stonehenge bottleneck!
Map of alternative routes.

If I was coming from London, I'd be taking the A303 / A338 / A354 and take my chances at Salisbury.

Accident reported on the roundabout this evening, causing long delays.

Yesterday local travel news reported just one major traffic problem in Dorset.

Guess where?

Canford Bottom A31 of course!!

Surprise! Surprise!

Will be turned back into a roundabout after the Olympics i am certain.

No, the works are irreversible without a major outcry about what would be a waste of the public purse given the stated aims of the scheme of reducing congestion at this junction (ignoring, of course, any argument about the effectiveness of the initial works and spending).

But hang on, if the junction redesign is found to be causing more congestion than the original roundabout and thus the upgrade is a failure (which it will be IMO) then they will have to look again at it.

I think all they would need to do to put it back to roundabout is close (not remove)the through road and make all trafic go around the roundabout, with or without traffic lights which is all i think it needed in the first place: Peak time signals!

Tried out the hamburger from the old A31 from Ferndown, left onto the Wimborne bypass, on Saturday. A much longer queue than I've seen before from Ferndown. Holiday queues , made it impossible to obey the lights. Only 2 cars can move forward to join the A31 but, because of the congestion caused by the lane drop at the end of the short D2, you have to wait for the A31 lights to turn red. The phases are too short for anyone else to get out. So, 2 cars at a time move beyond the lights to wait to join A31, then get red for the next local road, the B3073 from Longham. Those cars are doing the same thing and, presumably on the other, Wimborne side as well. The A31 is dualled here so then, you have to merge with the outside lane where it ends, which is the cause of the main congestion. After that, traffic flows at about 30, until the approach to the Merley rbt.
As a deliberate movement, I found it quite absorbing but for locals, it must be infuriating and intimidating for some.
The A349 is closed during the Olympics, through Merley, with local access only. The A348 through Longham and Ferndown was stationary in both directions. It took 15 mins to do 2 miles.

I've noticed that the HA traffic news has not mentioned A31 Canford Bottom since the Olympic road system came in. Congestion is now described as at Ameysford and Merley rbts each side of CB. Total control of propaganda, I mean information, language and roads.

Went through the hamburger earleir this week using the A31. I used to often go straight through Ferndown to avoid the A31 bottleneck where the D2 becomes an S2, but haven't been down that way for some time.

Since they have lights, they might well adjust them at different times of the day to keep queues down (one can only hope). However, now that I have sorted out my mother's estate (she lived in Bridport), it iis unlikely that I will be using that road much.