IS £22m repair for Spur Road back on the cards?

8:56am Wednesday 13th February 2013 in News

IS £22m repair for Spur Road back on the cards? IS £22m repair for Spur Road back on the cards?

BOURNEMOUTH’S “worn out” Spur Road could be repaired at last if a bid for government funding is successful.

Dorset County Council hopes £22million plans to repair the dual carriageway – one of the county’s busiest roads – will be approved.

Up to 60,000 vehicles use the road each day and the council hopes it will qualify for part of the government’s £170million Local Pinch Point Fund to remove bottlenecks in areas where traffic problems are impeding growth.

In order to qualify for funding, local authorities must pay at least 30 per cent of the cost, so Dorset plans to contribute £6.6million.

Highways chiefs know they are up against it to secure the bid.

The Department for Transport has already advised local authorities that there will be a presumption against bids over £10million, unless they are of “truly exceptional value.”

Most schemes are likely to fall into the category of small schemes, requiring funding of between £1million and £5million.

If funding is granted, the work must be completed within two years.

The six-mile stretch between Cooper Dean and Ashley Heath was due a major makeover in the autumn on 2010 but the government pulled the plug on funding at the last minute.

Funding was withdrawn despite the road being described as “worn out” by Dorset highways chiefs.

By then £1million had already been spent on preparatory work, including six months’ of clearing verges and removing rare sand lizards.

At the time the council considered ploughing ahead with the scheme using loans and grants but decided it was impossible due to budget cuts.

The Spur Road scheme is the number one priority in the funding bid but applications will also be made for two other areas.

Dorset council will also ask for around £2.5million for improvements to the Chapel Gate and Hurn roundabouts and £1.7million for the A3066 Beaminster Tunnel.

Cllr Peter Finney, Dorset’s cabinet member for highways and transportation said: “If we get the funding it will prevent an awful lot of expenditure in a piecemeal fashion.

“We would have to repair it in patches which is more costly and causes more disruption.

“We hope to be able to do the work in one go and the A338 is our top priority.”

Comments(34)

uvox44 says...
9:12am Wed 13 Feb 13

seems sensible to repair it now before it gets even worse- especially as the surface is so bad in places it is a danger to motorcyclists.

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awsokend says...
9:56am Wed 13 Feb 13

Make it a toll road

£10 x 60,000 a day

dirt cheap.

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speedy231278 says...
9:58am Wed 13 Feb 13

How can it cost £22M for a couple of miles of tarmac? Are the local councillors on commission again?

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Redgolfer says...
10:03am Wed 13 Feb 13

awsokend wrote:
Make it a toll road

£10 x 60,000 a day

dirt cheap.
So now we go for ''if you have the money then you can use the road'' what happens to the road fund licence money that we pay every year and if not paying to use the road are we to go back to using Matcham's Lane as the main road to Ringwood like back in the old day's and I take it that awsokend does not use the road or live round here.

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rayc says...
10:26am Wed 13 Feb 13

awsokend wrote:
Make it a toll road

£10 x 60,000 a day

dirt cheap.
How does making it a toll road fit in with the statement:
"Up to 60,000 vehicles use the road each day and the council hopes it will qualify for part of the government’s £170million Local Pinch Point Fund to remove bottlenecks in areas where traffic problems are impeding growth."

Would a toll contribute to growth or impede it still further?

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l'anglais says...
10:28am Wed 13 Feb 13

awsokend wrote:
Make it a toll road

£10 x 60,000 a day

dirt cheap.
Fool

Increase Income Tax by 1% for all inhabitants of the conurbation of Poole and Bournemouth.
Even if you don't use the road, you benefit from the deliveries made by all the HGV's that create the problem.

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BmthNewshound says...
11:07am Wed 13 Feb 13

l'anglais wrote:
awsokend wrote:
Make it a toll road

£10 x 60,000 a day

dirt cheap.
Fool

Increase Income Tax by 1% for all inhabitants of the conurbation of Poole and Bournemouth.
Even if you don't use the road, you benefit from the deliveries made by all the HGV's that create the problem.
What a stupid comment. People in the south contribute more to the exchequer than those in other parts of the UK. Higher wages mean higher income tax, higher house prices mean more stamp duty and more inheritance taxes etc. However, with the exception of cross-rail in London the government spends more in the north, and go across the border into Scotland and you'll be hard pressed to find a major road in such a poor state of repair as the Spur Road.
.
If you're suggesting that taxes collected from residents in Dorset should be spent in Dorset then that is something I do support.

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contric says...
12:03pm Wed 13 Feb 13

l,anglais and awsokend what sort of people call for the paying of more tax when so much of what we pay is wasted now

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Gastines3 says...
12:23pm Wed 13 Feb 13

Don't forget to budget in the thousands for the lizard barrier. Wasted last time.I expect even the wild life laughs at our local organisation,or should that be hopeless organisation.

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muscliffman says...
12:30pm Wed 13 Feb 13

Are we going to see a repeat of the scandalous waste of public money a few years ago, just 'preparing' this road for later abandoned similar repairs?

Back then I recall an expensive scheme intended to save 'protected' wildlife from the noisey resurfacing process was carried out - including the removal of countless shrubs and trees and erection of a (miles) long black 'bin-bag' type low fence.

This seems to have been a waste of public money, with even some experts confirming that the 'protected' wildlife would have found it's own way to safety by natural instinct anyway.

But it also amounted to nothing less than an act of gross vandalism to the natural and mature environment well established beside the road. In my view these actions all but destroyed everything they were supposed to be conserving!

Not again. Stick to fixing the road this time, thank you.

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The irate commuter says...
12:54pm Wed 13 Feb 13

ohhhh jeez !!! Just forget about it !

Months & months & months of gridlock with an incompentant workforce knowing nothing on how to manage traffic, not having the intelligence to work at night, wasting millions on trying to protect some reptiles with a pathetic barrier

or

put up with a few holes in the road for the forseeable ???

I will continue to vote for holes in road please !!

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ianbthomson says...
1:08pm Wed 13 Feb 13

The irate commuter wrote:
ohhhh jeez !!! Just forget about it !

Months & months & months of gridlock with an incompentant workforce knowing nothing on how to manage traffic, not having the intelligence to work at night, wasting millions on trying to protect some reptiles with a pathetic barrier

or

put up with a few holes in the road for the forseeable ???

I will continue to vote for holes in road please !!
I have to say that I am with you. It will be an absolute nightmare for months. I travel up the road every day and it seems fine to me.

The incompetence of our Council will ensure that it drag on and on

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ianbthomson says...
1:12pm Wed 13 Feb 13

It is does go ahead, lets hope that the individuals involved in the Canford Bottom scheme that cost £9m are not involved.

How can something that cost so much money has not made any real improvements. Indeed, the junction is still being affected by traffic backing up to it from the nearby Merley roundabout.

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Scoty2hotty says...
1:50pm Wed 13 Feb 13

"By then £1million had already been spent on preparatory work, including six months’ of clearing verges and removing rare sand lizards"

How can it cost £1million to lay down some bin liners and pegs? its all blown down now anyway so it would never of lasted during the construction phase anyway!

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djkent says...
3:35pm Wed 13 Feb 13

all the silly people on here saying we should pay for it we do its called road tax

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l'anglais says...
3:37pm Wed 13 Feb 13

contric wrote:
l,anglais and awsokend what sort of people call for the paying of more tax when so much of what we pay is wasted now
How much Tax do you pay exactly?
Check out how much of your and your neighbours Council Tax payments contribute to the budget of your local council. 20%
You are subsidised, so why should the richest in the UK pay for your roads.

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P Barker says...
3:47pm Wed 13 Feb 13

The only bit that needs doing seem to be southbound from Blackwater. There are ridges of uneven surface ever 10 metres until past the water treatment works.

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contric says...
3:56pm Wed 13 Feb 13

being a landlord and with other investments i do pay a lot of tax but unlike the arrogant l,anglais i was in manufacturing thus a wealth creator unlike people in banking that manipulate wealth

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l'anglais says...
4:13pm Wed 13 Feb 13

contric wrote:
being a landlord and with other investments i do pay a lot of tax but unlike the arrogant l,anglais i was in manufacturing thus a wealth creator unlike people in banking that manipulate wealth
The difference between a person involved in manufacturing / landlord and a banker is what exactly?
Both attempt to manipulate their prospective markets to extract the maximum profit, exploiting the masses.

Now, if you had the same property in London rather than Dorset you would be paying higher taxes, so your point is what precisely?

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awsokend says...
4:36pm Wed 13 Feb 13

Bramble bush ferry charges me £12 per mile
the toll road at £10 or£12 is very reasonable
go for it.

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GAHmusic says...
5:29pm Wed 13 Feb 13

I admit it needs repairing but that wont sort the "pinch point" issue, that is because it is the only senssible way into bournemouth besides which it is ussually ok until an accident happens, traffic has nowhere else to go and can't get past. Now I don't know what will fix that but resurfacing will not do it and will just make it worse during the roadworks. I'm glad I don't have to use it often.

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Gastines3 says...
5:32pm Wed 13 Feb 13

As an afterthought and I expect it will be,I wonder if our controllers will have the intelligence to sort out the slip road in and out of Blackwater first,or will that be dug up the week after the resurfacing is finished?

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Hessenford says...
6:11pm Wed 13 Feb 13

awsokend wrote:
Bramble bush ferry charges me £12 per mile
the toll road at £10 or£12 is very reasonable
go for it.
Sounds good to me, lets all use Matchams lane again, there were fewer accidents along there than there are on the spur road.

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Phixer says...
6:28pm Wed 13 Feb 13

awsokend wrote:
Bramble bush ferry charges me £12 per mile
the toll road at £10 or£12 is very reasonable
go for it.
Pardon?

You pay for the toll road from Studland to Shell Bay which is a bit over 2.5 miles. Are you saying that you pay £30 every time you cross on the ferry?

Silly boy!

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Tripod says...
7:35pm Wed 13 Feb 13

Whatever they do it'll need re-doing in 10 or 20 years, the road was never designed (or built) for the weight of traffic currently using it; to fix it properly would require a complete rip-up and re-build, and that ain't going to happen.

The only long-term answer is to reduce the weight of traffic regularly using the road.

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fossilmole says...
8:23pm Wed 13 Feb 13

Time this road was adjusted to give a decent access into Bournemouth Airport.

Maybe then this 'white elephant' would start to be worth something.

Oh..and we could add the £2.50 drop-off/pick-up charge for the airport onto the toll these folks are keen to vote into being.

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corozin says...
8:42pm Wed 13 Feb 13

According to the photo used by the Bournemouth Evening Echo, the Spur Road is so broken it's started to look like the Upton Bypass...

Is our local paper staffed by complete monkeys?

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corozin says...
8:46pm Wed 13 Feb 13

Tripod wrote:
Whatever they do it'll need re-doing in 10 or 20 years, the road was never designed (or built) for the weight of traffic currently using it; to fix it properly would require a complete rip-up and re-build, and that ain't going to happen.

The only long-term answer is to reduce the weight of traffic regularly using the road.
And how are you going to do that exactly?

I guess we need a motorway then...

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GAHmusic says...
8:52pm Wed 13 Feb 13

corozin wrote:
According to the photo used by the Bournemouth Evening Echo, the Spur Road is so broken it's started to look like the Upton Bypass...

Is our local paper staffed by complete monkeys?
That's not the Upton bypass it's the aproach to the Cooper dean roundabout on the wessex way

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awsokend says...
9:50pm Wed 13 Feb 13

Phixer wrote:
awsokend wrote:
Bramble bush ferry charges me £12 per mile
the toll road at £10 or£12 is very reasonable
go for it.
Pardon?

You pay for the toll road from Studland to Shell Bay which is a bit over 2.5 miles. Are you saying that you pay £30 every time you cross on the ferry?

Silly boy!
Its one third of a mile sweetheart.

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Yankee1 says...
12:08am Thu 14 Feb 13

This road is crucial to the conurbation.

If need be, make it a toll road. Use transponders so that locals can have a reduced rate. Then use every penny to upgrade the road.

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Avengerboy says...
12:15am Thu 14 Feb 13

It's not worn out, that's just litter!

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Baywolf says...
7:41am Thu 14 Feb 13

If this stretch of road was in France it would have been resurfaced in one day, they have great machines that scrape fill and Tarmac from the other end while it moves slowly up the road, of course Britain dosnt have anything like that as its too cost efficient employs less people standing over holes and dosnt cause disruption for months on end.

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BIGTONE says...
8:02am Thu 14 Feb 13

You have no chance of securing funding for the spur road.especially as you have offered 2 very cheap alternatives. Ummmmm let me see. I wonder which one the Government will choose?

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