Our surface dressing continues in Wareham next week, targetting residential roads.
We’ve had a slower start than we would have liked as the weather has not been on our side.
Works completed this week, starting 23 April:
- Frome Road, Wareham
- Hardy Road, Wareham
- Barnes Road, Wareham
- Shirley Road, Wareham
- Stowell Crescent, Wareham
- Encombe Road, Wareham
- Causeway Close (Northport Drive end), Wareham
Roads scheduled for surface dressing next week, starting Monday 29 April:
- North Causeway, Wareham
- Sandford Lane, Wareham
- Johns Road, Wareham
- Carey Close, Wareham
- Walls Veiw Road, Wareham
- West Mill Crescent, Wareham
- Link from Wessex Oval, Wareham
- St Marys Close, Wareham
- Wessex Oval, Wareham
- Humber Chase, Wareham
- Egdon Road, Wareham
- Mistover Road, Wareham.
- Carey Road, Wareham
- Courtney Close, Wareham
- Admirals Way, Wareham
- Drax Avenue, Wareham
- Northport Drive, Wareham
- Trent Drive, Wareham
- Bourne Drive, Wareham
Work scheduled for week starting Tuesday 7 May:
- Nordon Drive, Wareham
- Middlebere Drive, Wareham
- Fairway Drive, Wareham
- Seven Barrows Road, Wareham
- Wellstead Road, Wareham
- Stockley Road, Wareham
- Burns Road, Wareham
- Tarrant Drive, Wareham
- Great Ovens Drive, Wareham
- Stour Drive, Wareham
- Sherford Drive, Wareham
- Avon Drive, Wareham
- Tantinoby Lane, Wareham
- Daniel Drive, Wareham
- Willow Way, Wareham
- Northmoor Way, Wareham
- Dual carriageway (northbound) – Bere Road to Northmoor Way, Wareham
- Link from Northmoor Way to A351 (opposite golf club entrance)
Some sections of West Mill Crescent, Wessex Oval and the Wessex Oval link Road will be left untreated. Due to scheduled SSE cabling work. We will surface dress these ‘bare’ sections during next year’s surface dressing programme.
About the work
Our surface dressing gang is working 9am to 4pm in urban areas and 8am to 4pm in rural areas.
Here are a few things you can to do help us, and yourself:
- please move your car off the road before 9am
- please keep children and pets away – for safety and cleanliness
- please keep to the temporary speed limits and avoid heavy braking to allow the surface to stabilise and ‘bed down’
- check your shoes before entering your car or home
- remove stains promptly with a cleaner for removing bitumen/oil which can be purchased from any motoring store
Surface dressing doesn’t take long and the road can be driven on as soon as it’s finished. Depending on the length of the road you live on, the road will be closed for around 1-2 hours while the treatment takes place.
There will be an advisory 20mph speed limit after the work while the loose stones ‘bed down’ into the bitumen. Travelling at this reduced speed will prevent skidding on the loose chippings, help ‘bed down’ the material and will save your paint work!
We sweep the road one to two days after the work to get rid of excess stones.
White lining reinstatement will follow on from this and is generally a week or so later.
Sorry for the inconvenience
We cannot work overnight as surface dressing relies on the evaporation of water from the bitumen binder (glue) for it to set, and it needs traffic to travel on the new surface for it to ‘bed down’ and lock onto the old surface.
We also cannot work in wet weather – any amount of rain or surface water dilutes the bitumen and so doesn’t hold the chippings in place – which is why our surface dressing programme runs from April through to September.
As this treatment is so weather dependent, dates are subject to change.
And which genius decided all this but FAILED to tell residents this work was taking place?
There has been no prior notice or warning of any kind, we only found out about this work today and it was the postman that told us , does it not occur to you that cars could be parked and prevent the work taking place?
The area around Carey is used as a car park by factory and office workers and is also an area where vehicles are left for several weeks at a time having been dumped by people working away or going on holiday and using the train.
There could also be residents away from home whose vehicles are left parked on the road.
There has been absolutely nothing to tell anyone about this work, letters should have gone out to all residents many weeks in advance.
Hi A Hawkins, sorry you’ve only just heard of this. Local councillors have been informed, as well as a press release being sent out to local media (newspaper and radio) and there has been information online and on social media trying to reach Wareham residents. Advance yellow warning signs are also being put in place to warn any users (residents or commuters) of the work about to take place.
Unfortunately, we don’t send letters out to residents about surface dressing due to it being so weather dependent. Anyone receiving a letter would understandably want a date that their road is being worked on, but with surface dressing this could very well change at short notice – causing confusion and upset for residents.
Last year we carried out residential surface dressing in Alderholt, Blandford, Corfe Castle, Gillingham, Lyme Regis, Weymouth and Portland with very few cars left in the way and needing to be towed.
Please look out for the advance warning yellow boards, as these will have the most accurate dates on them.
A word of thanks to the council for endeavouring to keep us informed about, what is a massive undertaking – the road network in Dorset! Unfortunately, there will be delays for all sorts of reasons, to the planned works, but many of us actually do appreciate the efforts being made.
This website is very informative and gives the householders a small insight into the meticulous planning needed to get the projects completed – in addition to emergency repairs and works which cannot be planned.
Thank you for doing what you do!
Hi Juan, thank you so much for your positive words – I’ll be passing them on to our workforce for some midweek motivation 🙂
Shocking work. Noisy, messy, unsitely, rough, coming apart, not settled, leaves pools of water, will damage cars, drainage bad, already tyre marks leaving divets. Pot holes will form in no time. Not a good job at all. Shameful if it was to cut costs. Expect claims for unatural tyre wear and scratches to cars Nothing to be proud of and you deserve every complaint you get. Come back and do a proper job.
Hi Jamie, surface dressing is not used to cut costs. It is used across the country on roads that meet the criteria for this type of treatment.
If you can let me know which road is causing your concern I will pass it on to the works supervisor for him to visit the site and ensure the work is to specification.