Drivers in Dorset face 42-mile diversion route on essential Coronavirus lockdown journeys to bypass tiny road closure
Drivers face a 42-mile diversion route to make a 600 metre journey when a stretch of the A3066 through Dorset closes amid lockdown next week.
Hogshill Street in Beaminster is to shut between Monday 20 April andFriday 24 April while resurfacing work is carried out by DorsetCounty Council.
As a result, a journey which would usually take minutes, will now take motorists more than an hour.
It means that drivers could face significantly longer journeys tocarry out essential travel amid the coronavirus lockdown.
The closure will be in effect between 7pm and 6am each night, and will takefour nights to complete.
Starting in Beaminster, the diversion route will take motorists along the A3066 to Mosterton before crossing the Somerset border into Misterton.
It then goes back into Dorset along the A356 and through South Perrott, Maiden Newton and Frampton before taking the A37 towards Grimstone.
Drivers can then take the A35 at Poundbury and travel through Winterbourne Abbas towards Bridport before rejoining the A3066 and heading through Melplash back towards Beaminster.
The reason for the length of the diversion is because as the closureis on an A-road, any official alternative route must use the sameclass of road.
There are a number of shorter, unofficial routes that drivers can taketo avoid the closure.