Drivers in Weymouth warned of disruption on roads in new year

9:15am Friday 21st December 2012 in News

DRIVERS in Weymouth are being warned of major disruption in the new year as a cycle path and crossings are constructed.

Cumberland Drive into the Granby Industrial Estate will be closed between its junction with Chickerell Road and access to the Land Registry and there will be temporary traffic lights around Fiveways and at the junction of Lanehouse Rocks Road and Chickerell Road.

This is to allow crossing facilities to be installed as part of the Marsh Route, a shared use footpath and cycleway linking Newstead Road with Chickerell Link Road.

Business will be open as usual and drivers wanting to access the Granby Industrial Estate will need to use Chickerell Link Road.

Work will start on Monday, January 7 but traffic management measures will come into force on Monday, January 14.

Cumberland Drive at the top end will be closed for three weeks but the temporary lights will be in place until early March.

Dorset Highways project manager Emma Baker said: “We know that the temporary signals will cause delays so we will be manually controlling these at peak times Monday to Friday to try and help the flow of traffic.”

See tomorrow’s Echo for the full story and reaction.

Comments(26)

Laughing gnome says...
10:32am Fri 21 Dec 12

Just what the local economy needs. More money wasted during a recession. At least the cyclists will be able to safely ride off the granby with their P45's when all the businesses shut down.

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Presstostop says...
11:59am Fri 21 Dec 12

What a criminal waste of money.

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Crabber says...
12:31pm Fri 21 Dec 12

Laughing gnome wrote:
Just what the local economy needs. More money wasted during a recession. At least the cyclists will be able to safely ride off the granby with their P45's when all the businesses shut down.
Gnome when have you ever seen a cyclist using the provided cycleways /paths. If you have please photograph and contact the Ohec and hopefully we will have evidence that they actually worth all this aggro and waste of money in these difficult economic times

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rjimmer says...
1:03pm Fri 21 Dec 12

Cyclists should have third party insurance.

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annotator1 says...
1:06pm Fri 21 Dec 12

Quite agree with all comments. What an absolute waste of money and I don't recall seeing a cyclist using any cycle paths. Foot paths yes!

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Artstudent says...
1:13pm Fri 21 Dec 12

Blah de Blah We own the roads. This shared cycleway and footpath is being built so that children can cycle safely to and from school and so that pedestrians can cross several busy road junctions. An improvement worth more but costing far less than the average new road.

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fixbike says...
1:33pm Fri 21 Dec 12

there are more people on there bikes because of the recession and the cost of fuel. we should be glad the there is something being put in for the safety of our kids and us instead of wasting it else where. crabber did you see ALL the people on bikes in the summer and most DID use the cycle paths there has also been data collected on the useage of the cycle paths which you could get from dcc

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hellojohn says...
4:50pm Fri 21 Dec 12

Perhaps if more motorists didn't drive like complete imbeciles all the time there wouldn't be any need for this sort of project.

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billy badger says...
5:05pm Fri 21 Dec 12

Let's hope the cyclists learn a bit more courtesy towards pedestrians and learn to slow down or stop.Also will they try abiding by the laws that are already in place.NO cycling on pavements even if they are scared to ride on the road.
Pedestrians are not safe in what is supposed to be their environment.
I will of course get slated for this observation I am always wrong never the cyclists.

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weymouthfox says...
5:19pm Fri 21 Dec 12

Why is there always money to pay for more cycle paths while everything more worthwhile gets cut? I see very few cyclists on these expensive paths- look at the cycle path from Ridgeway to Dorchester, have you ever seen more than an occasional cyclist on it?

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Ghostnigel says...
6:17pm Fri 21 Dec 12

I Don't mind the work being done, but why does it have to take so goddam long to do it?
In Thailand they built a 130 mile multi-lane highway in under 2 years, and its a whole lot better than our roads, but it took over a year to put in 3 sets of traffic lights over here, what is that all about?
WDDC, if you gotta do it, just do it quickly....simples.

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Leftrealist says...
7:38pm Fri 21 Dec 12

Why are the works scheduled for the first full working week? Couldn't we minimise disruption by working over the Xmas period? Don't reply - I do know the answer!

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Bert Fry says...
8:18am Sat 22 Dec 12

Yes, what a waste of money making it safer for children to get to and from school, much better they dice with all the distracted car drivers. Even worse, it might even encourage more of them to cycle!

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satisfecho says...
9:31am Sat 22 Dec 12

billy badger wrote:
Let's hope the cyclists learn a bit more courtesy towards pedestrians and learn to slow down or stop.Also will they try abiding by the laws that are already in place.NO cycling on pavements even if they are scared to ride on the road.
Pedestrians are not safe in what is supposed to be their environment.
I will of course get slated for this observation I am always wrong never the cyclists.
At the same time it would be good if pedestrians turn the bleeding iPods off and listening out for cyclists who are approaching from behind.

Much better than giving us a disgusting look because you could not hear us ring our bells several times bellowing out 'excuse me'

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MASK & SNORKEL says...
10:21am Sat 22 Dec 12

Cycle path's are great, i use them whenever i can. I would love to see a sign at the start of Preston & Portland Beach Road's, stating cyclists HAVE to use the cycle paths provided and NOT ride on the road. These roads have pedestrian crossing points which narrow the road in several places, cyclists ride along at about 20 - 30 mph, and the traffic squeezes past them at nearly double that! We will get someone hurt or killed one day!!The few cyclists that do ride on the road must be mental as a safer enviroment for cycling is only a few feet away!!

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Isosceles says...
2:19pm Sat 22 Dec 12

This must be important, the Echo has put it in twice!

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chesilboy says...
10:56am Mon 24 Dec 12

MASK & SNORKEL wrote:
Cycle path's are great, i use them whenever i can. I would love to see a sign at the start of Preston & Portland Beach Road's, stating cyclists HAVE to use the cycle paths provided and NOT ride on the road. These roads have pedestrian crossing points which narrow the road in several places, cyclists ride along at about 20 - 30 mph, and the traffic squeezes past them at nearly double that! We will get someone hurt or killed one day!!The few cyclists that do ride on the road must be mental as a safer enviroment for cycling is only a few feet away!!
You would love to make cycle paths compulsory, BUT you also acknowledge cyclists that use Preston road travel at 20 - 30mph. You can't have it both ways.

The cycle path is not a "safer environment" at that speed. That is why we are on the road in the first place! Out of courtesy to the pedestrian and with respect to safety.

As a keen cyclist it drives mad to see so many people cycling illegally on the pavements or cycling recklessly on the shared paths.

Where there are no cycle-paths (90% of my journeys) we MUST use the road. Where there is a cycle path we should use it when it is safe to do so.

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Isosceles says...
12:13pm Mon 24 Dec 12

chesilboy says "you also acknowledge cyclists that use Preston road travel at 20 - 30mph."
That may be so but cars are travelling along there at up to 50 mph and with the obstacles in the middle of the road such as pedestrian islands, not a good mix.

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chesilboy says...
2:03pm Mon 24 Dec 12

So what about every other road in the country that contains obstacles and where there isn't a cycle lane?

You can never guarantee a "good mix", that is why we have a highway code and a generally ignored rule to share the road and respect ALL road users.

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martaaay2 says...
3:41pm Mon 24 Dec 12

at the end of the day if a cycle lane saves just 1 life then it is worth it, reality is it will probably save many over its lifetime

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HotBeaver1 says...
6:00pm Mon 24 Dec 12

@rjimmer so should all car drivers... but they don't.

I ride a bike and drive a car - so I pay VED and, regardless, have just as much right to be on the road as anyone else. VED is not Road Tax (Road Fund actually as it was called then) - that was abolished by Winston Churchill in 1934 because he thought that "It will be only a step from this for to claim in a few years the moral ownership of the roads their contributions have created."

Regarding the provision of cycleways and their use... shared paths (exclusively the sort we have in Weymouth) are unsuitable for people who cycle relatively quickly (the highway code suggests 18Mph as a reasonable limit) and, with respect to the shared paths in Weymouth, I can only assume that the designers of the schemes go out of their way to make things difficult for cyclists.

When every car driver obeys the highway code (the last paragraph of rule 163 springs to mind) I would also expect every cyclist to do likewise!

There are bad road users, average road users and good road users no matter what mode of transport they use - including feet. Things would work if only everyone gave a little respect to each other.

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I'mavoter says...
1:16am Tue 25 Dec 12

And do the cyclists pay anything towards all this work being done just fr them ? No ! Unlike motorists who have to pay Road Fund Licence fees.
Both councils are forever pleading poverty and cutting back (street lighting, libraries etc), but hundreds of thousands of pounds can be found so that a few cyclists can have their own little lane, without paying anything extra towards it. Lots of roads in Weymouth desperately need resurfacing, but apparently there is no money available for this. Can anyone tell me how many cyclists have been injured along Chickerell Road ?
I suppose the next thing will be special lanes for those driving electric scooters/buggies.

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westendcat says...
11:08am Wed 26 Dec 12

Far better to spend this money on the repair and upkeep of our fast deteriorating public highways. Who cares about ignorant cyclists anyway?

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itsallaboutthebike says...
10:14pm Wed 26 Dec 12

Everyone should ignore I'mavoter, he's a troll who spouts the same rubbish. In actual fact every single tax paying person pays for the roads and cycle paths in general taxation. Do cyclists get to use motorways? no, but if we pay tax we still pay for them.

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HotBeaver1 says...
10:52am Thu 27 Dec 12

I'mavoter wrote:
And do the cyclists pay anything towards all this work being done just fr them ? No ! Unlike motorists who have to pay Road Fund Licence fees.
Both councils are forever pleading poverty and cutting back (street lighting, libraries etc), but hundreds of thousands of pounds can be found so that a few cyclists can have their own little lane, without paying anything extra towards it. Lots of roads in Weymouth desperately need resurfacing, but apparently there is no money available for this. Can anyone tell me how many cyclists have been injured along Chickerell Road ?
I suppose the next thing will be special lanes for those driving electric scooters/buggies.
@I'mavoter if you can find one person in this country who actually pays "Road Fund License" I would be very surprised.

Road fund License was abolished in 1937 - as I mentioned earlier - because Churchill had the foresight to see that people like you would claim some sort of ownership of the roads...

But please don't let facts get in the way of an uneducated rant.

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satisfecho says...
1:46pm Thu 27 Dec 12

westendcat wrote:
Far better to spend this money on the repair and upkeep of our fast deteriorating public highways. Who cares about ignorant cyclists anyway?
for one ignorant cyclist, there are 1000+ car drivers

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