Motorists have spoken of their frustration at the lengthy delays faced getting to and from Portland due to a major roadworks project.

Works on Portland Beach Road are causing chaos, with fuming motorists reporting hour-long delays on Tuesday evening.

Some residents even abandoned their attempts to get off the island, deciding to turn round and head home instead.

Work started on the A354 on Monday for a new electricity cable replacement project – the first phase of which will take four months.

At 8am on Wednesday, Portland resident Lesley Saunders said she spent 40 minutes in the queue before giving up and going home.

She said: "Why not work at night as they did when resurfacing New Road? Whilst nobody is disputing the need to replace cables, who exactly gave permission to dig up the road and use traffic lights for weeks, because ultimately they are the people to blame."

At 5.30pm on Tuesday, cars queued for miles with jams reportedly stretching back as far as Chickerell Road, Weymouth.

Portlander Tanya Baker said: "It’s rush hour times that are the problem.
"Luckily I live and work on the island. However I do use the buses which cannot run to timetable due to the delays."

Louise Bedford said: "My son left for the bus at Weston at 7.40am, the bus turned up at 8.10am. He phoned me at 8.25am and they had made it as far as Fortuneswell."

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), which is carrying out the work, said lights would be manned at peak hours but several residents claimed this was not the case.

One resident, who did not wish to be named, said he had queued for more than an hour as he tried to battle his way home from work in Dorchester.

"There wasn't anyone there managing the traffic flow and I was under the impression there would be at peak times," he said.

However, some residents said the works had not caused them much delay.

Julie Button said took her 20 mins to get from Portland to All Saints School in Wyke Regis.

Another resident said although the roadworks were inconvenient, people had been given plenty of warning there would be disruption.

BUSES ARE DELAYED

A First Wessex spokesperson said: “Our services towards Portland are experiencing some disruptions at peak times due to the roadworks taking place.

"Due to the nature of the road layout surrounding these works, there is limited scope to improve journey times.

"We will however, be exploring any available options to try and minimise disruption to our customers . Throughout these works, we advise passengers to plan ahead and allow extra time to complete their journey.”

GIVE YOUR FEEDBACK ON ROADWORKS  

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said: “We would like to apologise to customers who were delayed as a result of the traffic lights at Hamm roundabout on Tuesday, which was the first day our lights were in operation.

"Our lights, part of the traffic management programme agreed with the local highways department, are currently set up as a three-way system to take into account the various points of the roundabout, and we expect to progress away from the roundabout next week, when the lights will be reduced to two-way which will also help minimise any delays.

"The lights are manned by our teams at peak hours, and the staff on the ground will continue to do their best to try and keep an equal flow of traffic from each access point while avoiding an unreasonable build up of traffic.”

SSEN is hosting an information session, where people can meet the project team and learn more about the work.

It will be held between 2pm-7pm on Tuesday, January 23 at Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy.

Kevin Cheleda, Dorset County Council's traffic team manager, said: “Scheduling work in Weymouth is always a challenge as we try everything we can to avoid large projects taking place during the summer holidays and in the run up to Christmas – but this then squeezes work into a smaller timeframe.

“We’re monitoring the delays and advising them if the queues are unevenly weighted to one side, however, there will be delays for both directions of travel.

“There would be no advantage of the work being carried out at night – as the trench would still be open all day but with no-one working. The land either side of the road is protected and working within the cycleway would still require road space for work vehicles and equipment."