MOTORISTS' happiness at the partially-reopened Spur Road was shortlived after commuters were stuck queueing for up to 70 minutes yesterday morning.

Now the council has pledged to look at all options to get the road fully open for Christmas as soon as possible.

Dorset County Council reopened most of the Spur Road's four lanes over the weekend, going down to one lane southbound at the developing entrance and exit to the Lafarge tarmac quarry site.

Cars and lorries headed for Bournemouth were backed up all the way to the Ashley Heath interchange during rush hour.

Traffic was then free-flowing from the Avon Causeway where the road fully reopens to four lanes.

One driver, Carl Stelfox, claimed the journey from Ringwood to the Cooper Dean roundabout took 70 minutes.

Mel Percy tweeted that it was "a nightmare even at 7.10am".

The volume of traffic has forced the council to consider reopening the full four lanes ahead of schedule - but it is not yet known what the options are or when they might be implemented.

They are due to be completely reopened on Saturday, to help travellers on the last weekend before Christmas, when many families may be travelling for the winter break.

A spokesman for Dorset County Council said: “It seems that many drivers decided to use the A338 Bournemouth spur road [Monday] morning.

“Issues occurred at the traffic management on the southbound side where two lanes were reduced to one, while the work on the Lafarge Tarmac quarry access is being carried out.

“This work will continue for this week, so road users will need to be mindful and keep to the speed limit and merge in turn.

“We are looking at options so that we can remove the lane closure sooner, but all four lanes will be open on Saturday morning.”

With temporary lane markings in place the 40mph speed limits are still being enforced which the council said is for safety reasons, as some of the central reservation is yet to be completed.

Dorset County Councillor Peter Finney, cabinet member for environment, said: “We have anticipated people asking 'why is the 40mph speed limit still in place?' and that's because the barrier is still not fully up and there is still ongoing work with the ditches either side. It's essential that people still stick to the limit for their own safety.

“We know there would be an increase in traffic getting into Bournemouth over Christmas.”

There are new overnight lane closures being put in place between Ashley Heath roundabout and Cooper Dean roundabout from 8pm-6am starting tonight and ending at 6am on Saturday.

It will stay that way until January 4, 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.

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