The A338 Spur Road rebuild is now underway. Here's our guide to everything you need to know.

What are they doing?

The A338 is being totally rebuilt. The council is carrying out a full depth reconstruction, to be finished off with a new lower-noise surface layer. They will be upgrading the central safety barrier to concrete, improving drainage to solve flooding and 'ponding' problems and adding a 1m hard strip to give extra space for cars to move over for emergency vehicles or in case of breakdowns. The northbound carriageway will be temporarily resurfaced to make sure it lasts while the southbound carriageway is being rebuilt.

What’s closed?

Traffic will be reduced to a single lane in each direction from 6am September 7 until the end of May.

From September 21 until Christmas the road will be closed southbound from the QinetiQ access, with a contraflow in place.

From Monday November 2 until Friday November 6 the road will be fully closed overnight from 8pm to 6am, reopening 6am Saturday November 7.

There will be another week of full overnight closures from December 7 -11.

There will be a FULL overnight closure is on January 3, from 8pm -6am.

From January 4 until February the top part of the southbound carriage will be closed with traffic heading south diverted onto the contraflow on the northbound carriageway.

From Feburary to March, the top part of the Northbound carriageway will be closed, with traffic crossing to the newly rebuilt southbound carriageway at the QinetiQ access.

From March to May, the northbound carriageway will be closed from the QinetiQ access to Blackwater, with a contraflow on the newly rebuilt southbound carriageway.

What will the speed limit be?

The limit will be 40mph for the duration of the works, although there has been a delay with signs for the southbound carriageway, which means the limit is not technically yet in force.

When will it finish?

The road should be fully reopened by the end of May, with some finishing works scheduled for June.

What does the council say the impact will be?

The council is warning of “significant impact” to travel times, particularly at the start of the works. Routes around the A338 are likely to get extremely congested. The council is urging people to think about car sharing, using the bus or train or travelling  at non-peak times.

Why are they doing it?

The Spur Road is more than 40 years old and its foundations are crumbling, making the road surface crack (and making it very noisy) Resurfacing the road wouldn’t be enough, so it’s being totally rebuilt. It carries around 59,000 vehicles per day of which 3.7% (2,200 vehicles) are HGVs, which makes it Dorset's most heavily trafficked road.

Why isn’t there an official alternative route?

Two reasons: first, a official diversion is only required when a road is fully closed in one direction, which is why there will be a signed diversion during the overnight closures in September. Once the contraflow is in place, the council is not required to have a signed diversion route . Second, they CAN’T have an official alternative route, because regulations say traffic can only be diverted onto a route of similar category – and there are no other north/south ‘A’ roads into Bournemouth.

So it’s a free for all?

Effectively, yes. The council has highlighted the roads they expect to get extra traffic.

Bournemouth Echo:

HGVS will be warned away from using Matchams Lane and there's a handy guide to when the likely alternative routes were last resurfaced below - it may help you decide what you want to do.

Bournemouth Echo:

What days of the week are they working?

They will be working 24 hours, Monday to Saturday. Read more about why it’s not 24/7 here. 

What are my alternative modes of travel?

If you normally drive from the east along the A31, South-West trains operate the rail line into Bournemouth. There are roughly two trains an hour and they take about 45 minutes from Southampton.

Buses will of course have to find their own way through the traffic. More Bus are adding 5-10 minutes to their X3 journey times . There will be fewer services to Verwood, and from Ringwood to Ferndown. You can get details here.

Yellow Buses is making changes to their 4 4a/b/c and 20 timetables, including reducing the number of 4 services between Castlepoint and Royal Bournemouth Hospital from 28 to 22 per hour.

Route 4b will terminate at Castlepoint and no longer serve the hospital. Through tickets will be offered to the hospital allowing passengers to using services 3h and 2 2a 2b.

Routes 4a/b/c and 20 have some re-timings.

Route 1x and night buses N1a and N5 will be withdrawn for winter. N6 will only operate from Friday night to Sunday morning and change route, merging with service N5 and extend to Mountbatten roundabout.

Details here

 This means for many people, there will not be many alternatives - so consider changing your journey time to avoid peak hours or car sharing.  The councils recommend dorset.liftshare.com.

Anything else I need to know?

The council has issued a Section 58 notice for Spur Road – meaning utility companies can’t dig up the road for five years from the start of the reconstruction work.

What about the section from Blackwater to Cooper Dean? 

The Spur Road rebuild is part of a five step plan for road improvements, called the Bournemouth Airport Growth Hub Infrastructure Programme. Also included in the plan is the widening of the A338 from Cooperdean to Blackwater Junction to three lanes instead of two. Read more about that here

Why aren't they making the whole thing three lanes? 

Three reasons: the heathland around the road is protected (those pesky lizards again), the additonal lanes would mean new bridges across the road, and they can't afford it. Much more detail about that here

Where can I get more information?

We’ll be live-blogging to keep you up to date with traffic issues, closure updates and general information. Bookmark bournemouthecho.co.uk/A338 for all our coverage.