MOTORISTS face long delays from next week as works to make major improvements to the A338 Spur Road resume.

One southbound lane will be closed from just north of the Blackwater Junction towards the Cooper Dean roundabout.

There will also be a temporary 40mph speed limit.

Two lanes will remain on the northbound carriageway but the lane widths will be slightly reduced.

The works, due to start on Monday September 3 and take nine months, will see an extra southbound lane created on the section of the A338 between Blackwater junction and the Cooper Dean roundabout.

The sliproad which joins the southbound carriageway at Blackwater will be extended and the extra lane will continue for around 700m to give extra space for traffic to safely merge back into two lanes.

To accommodate the extra lane the carriageway will be widened into both the verge and central reserve and the bridge piers on the B3073 overbridge will also be given additional protection.

Gary Powell, head of traffic management at Bournemouth council said: “We welcome the start of Dorset LEP funded improvements, which get underway in September. They will greatly improve safety for traffic joining the A338.”

Works are part of the Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership’s Bournemouth International Growth (BIG) Programme transport schemes.

More than £20 million of investment is helping fund a series of highway improvements along the A338 and B3073 corridors aimed at facilitating better access into and around Bournemouth Airport as well as unlocking employment land at Aviation Business Park and at Wessex Fields.

Rob Dunford, Deputy Director of Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership said: “We welcome the start of the next stage of the £45.2 million BIG Programme investment in road improvements at this key junction which will ease congestion and improve accessibility to the economically important region.”

Drivers are advised to allow extra time or find alternative routes. Keep up to date at A338.info