One lane of the A338 Spur Road will be closed for the entire weekend from Friday night.

This is the first 24-hour lane closure needed so that preparation work can be carried out ahead of the rebuilding of the A338 in September.

One southbound lane will be closed between Ashley Heath and Blackwater at 8pm on Friday and will stay shut all day Saturday and Sunday. It will be reopen by 6am on Monday.

A second lane closure will take place between Friday, May 15 and Monday, May 18 and a reserve date has been earmarked for June in case of bad weather.

Bournemouth Echo:

The fine, sunny weather would ordinarily prompt an increase in visitors to Bournemouth at the weekend.

But highways bosses say they need to excavate current road material so they can understand how the road is made up, and test that the material they intend to rebuild the road with will work as intended.

Andrew Martin, head of highways at Dorset County Council, said: "This essential work will ensure that we know what mix of recycled material, from the current road, and new material is needed for a solid foundation for the reconstruction.

"Doing these trials now means we won't waste precious construction time carrying them out in September."

The £22m scheme to rebuild the five-and-a-half mile stretch of road between the Ashley Heath Roundabout and the Blackwater Junction will start in September and end next May.

It is being funded by the Government through the Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership and is intended to make journey times more consistent, remove the need for short-term expensive patching and repairs, make the road safer and unlock key employment land at Bournemouth Airport.

This story has been updated to correct the dates of the second weekend of lane closures.