MOTORISTS travelling between Weymouth and Portland are being reminded of a major roadworks scheme which starts today and will cause hold-ups - until the spring.

Workers will start digging up the A354 Portland Beach Road for a new electricity cable replacement project, the first phase of which will take four months.

It is warned that journeys will take longer as temporary lights are being switched on to control traffic, and they will be on throughout the day and night.

The Echo understands work will actually start during the day after this morning’s rush-hour.

The work starts today in the area of the Hamm Beach roundabout and will move towards Wyke Regis over the coming weeks.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), which is doing the work, says all roads will remain open throughout the cable installation.

For the safety of road-users and staff, a traffic management programme has been agreed with Dorset County Council highways officers and will see temporary traffic lights installed at the start and finish of each short section of road being worked on as the teams progress along the route.

SSEN is spending £2.6 million on the project to replace 7km of electricity cable which supplies Portland.

When complete, the new cables will make the local network “more robust and resilient and minimise the risk of power cuts for customers”, the company says.

The first phase from now until April involves installing new cable along Portland Beach Road and parts of Weymouth.

There will then be a break for the summer so as not to disturb nesting wildlife along Chesil Beach before workers return in September to remove the old cable that runs alongside the beach.

SSEN says teams will work on sections of Portland Beach Road from today for about five weeks before moving towards Wyke.

SSEN’s Strategic Investment Project Manager Miles Crossley said: “As with any work on the public highways, there will be an element of unavoidable disruption. We will do all we can to keep this to a minimum.”

Dorset County council Cabinet member for the natural and built environment Cllr Daryl Turner said: “The high voltage cable work on Portland Beach Road will be disruptive due to the nature of the road, but there is no other way for this maintenance activity to be carried out by SSE, and this is the best time of year for such a major piece of work to be done on this busy route.”

He added: “No-one likes their journey to be interrupted by roadworks, but utilities apparatus and our highways need to be maintained. Please allow extra time to get to your destination and try to be patient.”

DRIVERS also face hold-ups in other parts of the county in the coming weeks.

Work restarts on the A35 Upton Bypass towards Poole today, with ‘slow’ lanes closed and temporary lower speed limits along the dual carriageway.

These restrictions will be in place for 14 weeks while engineers install concrete barriers to protect the A350 bridge piers. Work also includes improvements to the A35 westbound drainage and A350 bridge plinth replacement.

Elsewhere, a project by Wessex Water to replace pipes beneath Dorchester Road, Upwey, will see temporary lights controlling traffic from January 24 to February 8.

Wessex Water is continuing work this week in the Preston/Sutton Poyntz area and SGN work continues on Wyke Road. As part of this work SGN will be making connections on Boot Hill, which means temporary lights will be controlling traffic starting January 22 for up to two weeks.