No, it's not an illusion, as one Twitter reader asked on Saturday. The A338 is now back to two lanes northbound, and one (and a half) lanes southbound.

The road reopened for the Christmas break on Saturday, with just a small stretch of single lane on the southbound carriageway - and drivers were overjoyed. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


But the joy didn't last long. By 7.30am traffic was extremely slow on the southbound carriageway because of the short single lane closure still in place southbound at the on- and off-slips to the Lafarge Tarmac quarry. It reopens to two lanes southbound just after the Avon Causeway.

By 8am the travel times had stretched to 45 minutes - longer than before the road was reopened.

It is the first time drivers were able to test out the new, quieter, road surface on the southbound carriageway, which has been rebuilt with a noise reduction layer. 

listen to ‘Bournemouth Echo talk about A338: how quiet is the new road surface?’ on Audioboom

The 40mph speed limit will remain in place due to the incomplete safety barrier, says the council, and there will be narrow lanes and temporary road markings on the southbound carriageway.

There are new overnnight lane closures being put in place between Ashley Heath Roundabout and Cooper Dean Roundabout from 8pm-6am starting on Tuesday night, and ending at 6am on Saturday December 19, when the road will be fully reopened with two lanes in both directions. It will still be 40mph though.

It will stay that way until January 4. That's when phase two starts, part of the Ashley Heath roundabout will be closed and all the traffic will have to filter on to the Spur Road from the west - that means that if you're coming from Ferndown or Ashley Heath you'll need to go go to Ringwood and turn round.

More details on that here.

It's not yet clear whether the contraflow will remain in place along the whole of the road during this phase (which only focuses on the top mile of the carriageway) or whether southbound traffic will be able to use the new carriageway. We'll keep you updated.

For all our coverage on the Spur Road rebuild at bournemouthecho.co.uk/a338