From Wednesday 25 March Dorset Highways will focus on delivering its priority services.

Our workforce is on standby to provide support to other council services. We are uniquely situated across the council area with a fleet of vehicles to help with deliveries, and workforce qualified to drive many different types of equipment and vehicles.

Programmed works

We are closing down our current work sites – removing any traffic management that is not required in our absence and checking any signing.

All highway improvement schemes and any bridge or road maintenance activities are now paused for at least three weeks.

We know how beneficial it would be to get work done while roads are quieter. We are working closely with our partners and supply chain investigating how some maintenance work could be delivered – where it is safe to do so – after this initial three-week pause.

In Swanage, Institute Road was reopened to traffic at 2pm on Tuesday 24 March. The temporary signals on High Street have been removed and Kings Road East has returned to its normal one-way flow out of town. Stafford Road has reopened to two-way traffic.

In Gillingham, the temporary pedestrian signals have been removed and a temporary refuge island has been installed. The three-way temporary lights at Wyke Street have been switched off and the junction is operating off the permanent signals.

Regular inspections will be carried out at all our closed sites to ensure they remain safe.

Routine works

We will continue to provide winter maintenance (until 30 April) and respond to 24hr callouts for highway emergencies and high-risk safety defects. This includes attending as required for collisions and carrying out emergency repairs to roads, bridges and footways.

While roads are quieter, we will make the best use of available workforce to continue carrying out pothole repairs. We will also continue to inspect our busiest roads for defects, however our response times may take longer in light of the current situation.

Our traffic team will continue to co-ordinate work on our roads to keep our online map up to date with what work is continuing and which works are cancelled/rescheduled.