TRAFFIC chaos is expected for drivers when repairs to the water mains begin on Weymouth's Dorchester Road.

Wessex Water will start replacing the mains next month and the work will involve a major traffic management scheme involving traffic lights and a single-carriageway in some places.

The repairs, costing more than £2 million, are expected to last six months.

Wessex Water held an exhibition at Wey Valley School to explain what the work will involve and how traffic will be affected.

Visitors to the exhibition expressed their concerns about the inadequacy of the traffic measures and also about the potential loss of business caused by the work. Bob D'Agostino, landlord of the Riverhouse Inn in Upwey, said: "Every time this road gets dug up we lose business; we rely heavily on passing trade."

Alternative routes will be signed between Weymouth and Dorchester and Weymouth and Bridport and Wessex Water expects this to cut traffic flows along Dorchester Road by 20 per cent.

Ben Baker, of Miles Gardens, Upwey, said: "During the years I have commuted to Weymouth I know all about delays, traffic queues, frustration and pollution caused each time there have been roadworks.

"I would have hoped for something more constructive as a traffic management exercise."

Gordon Lake, who lives near Dorchester Road, said: "They should open up relief roads around Winterborne Monkton, Upwey and Bincombe - that could reduce congestion by about a third."

David Elliott, Wessex Water's southern manager, said: "Every time a water mains bursts it causes severe disruption to residents. We made a promise to repair these mains and we're keeping that promise."

"Unfortunately the repairs are complicated because the road is an old trunk road made from heavily reinforced concrete, which is difficult and time-consuming to dig up." He said the water authority had employed a firm of traffic consultants to devise a suitable traffic plan and they were following their advice.