Dorset Highways are on track to have the A357 at Durweston reopen at the end of next week.

Now that all 38 precast culvert units (each weighing 13t) have been installed activity across the site has spread out and fired up to get the remaining elements of the structures finished.

This week

Our guys have been on site most mornings from 5.30am and are working through to the early evening. They’ve also been working Saturdays and Sundays, with the hard work and dedication showing in the progress that has been made.

Retaining walls

Around 60 per cent of the gabion baskets are now in place. We’ve been forming the wire baskets in situ by hand and filling them with stone to form the retaining walls. These will support the road and channel flood water into the new culverts.

All of the gabion basket retaining walls have been started and are currently standing just over half the finish height at 2.5m of the final 3.5m.

Road reconstruction

All of the culvert unit surrounds have been backfilled with concrete, with the road above the culverts currently being constructed using a recycled, cement-bound material.

This material is made from road planings which are produced when old road surfaces are removed during resurfacing. Using this saves money and reduces the carbon footprint of our scheme.

This is around 30 per cent complete.

Bridge parapets

The pre-cast units, which attach to the end of the new culverts, have been installed and we’ve started the steel reinforcement work.

This is around 10 per cent complete and we will be continuing with this when the road is reopened to traffic.

Traffic lights upgrade

In amongst all our major construction activity, we’ve managed to bring forward the upgrade of the permanent signals on the A350/A357 junction.

We’ve installed new ducting and new poles. The new signal heads will be fitted and tested ready for opening the junction later this summer.

We’ve also started repairs to Durweston Bridge following a collision earlier this year.

Remember you can catch up on all the action by viewing our online timelapse camera.

Coming up…

It is going to be another busy week for our workers…all of the tasks above (with the exception of the parapets) has to be finished before Thursday 18 July.

Then the surfacing gang will be in Thursday and Friday to lay the new road surface. We’ll need to do some tidying up works and then the road will be ready to reopen on Sunday 21 July with three-way lights back in action.

We need the temporary traffic lights back in place so that we can safely finish the parapets, kerbing and traffic light upgrades. These are likely to be up until early August.

Please still allow extra time for your journeys in the area.