MOTORISTS are being warned of major disruption as nine weeks' of work has been announced on Weymouth's Town Bridge - a key route in and out of the town centre.

The bridge will be closed to traffic for much of the work but one footway will remain open to pedestrians.

The timing of the work, to repair crucial 'welds'. has been criticised as it will begin as a night-time project on Swannery Bridge starts.

Work will start on Weymouth Town Bridge on Monday, September 26, and finish by November 30.

From September 26 to September 30 the bridge will be closed to all vehicles from 7.30am to 5pm. Two-way traffic signals will be in place overnight from 5pm to 7.30am.

From 7.30am on Saturday, October 1, until 7.30am on Monday, October 3, the bridge will be open with two-way signals in place.

From 7.30am on Monday, October 3, the bridge will close to all traffic until the work is finished in November.

There will be diversions in place however, due to the narrow nature of some town centre streets, Dorset Council has told businesses that diversions may not be suitable for HGVs and longer vehicles.

The council has asked businesses to advise its delivery companies when the Town Bridge will be closed. If the bridge forms part of their usual route, drivers will need to check alternative routes.

Town Bridge will continue to operate for harbour users, with scheduled lifts Monday to Friday at 8am and 6pm, and a single lift at midday, with mariners asked to book bridge lifts by 4pm the day before with Weymouth Harbour Master’s office.

Meanwhile, work to undertake repairs to part of Swannery Bridge and the King Street crossroads is from Sunday, September 25 and Friday, September 30 with the road closed between 9pm and 6am daily.

Parts of Radipole Park Drive, Commercial Road and Jubilee Close will also be resurfaced during the same period.

The chair of Weymouth and Portland Hackney Carriage Association, Eddie Hawkins, said that the closures of both the Swannery Bridge and Weymouth Town Bridge taking place during the same week for works, will negatively impact the local economy.

He said: "I put it down to really bad planning.

"Obviously customers are going to have to be taken around the long way and the diversions are quite long.

"Both sets of roadworks shouldn't be done at once. We've basically got works at two ends of the town centre which will cause major disruption."

He said that extra costs for longer routes could fall on customers and that temporary lights put in place will cause queues to build in the area as well as excess pollution.

Mr Hawkins added: "I understand that work needs to be done. But they should do one lot of work one week and then start the next lot another time."

He said that he was grateful to the council for the notice given which gave him enough time to let others know about the changes.

A spokesman for Dorset Council said: "The two sets of work have been co-ordinated so that there is always vehicle access over the harbour to the town centre.

"While Swannery Bridge junction is closed between 9pm and 6am from 25 to 30 September, Town Bridge will be open overnight under two-way signals (5pm to 7.30am, 26 September to 30 September). Town Bridge fully closes on 3 October, when the junction resurfacing work has finished."

Jack Wiltshire, Dorset Council Head of Highways, said: “Weymouth Town Bridge has over 2,700 welds attaching the steel deck plates on to the bridge beams.

“We won’t know the true number of welds that need replacing until we remove the road surface and reveal the extent of the damage.

“If we don’t replace the welds, water will get through the deck plate to the beams and will start to cause corrosion to the body of the structure – causing much greater damage and threatening the operation of this vital lifting bridge.”

Earlier this year, the council said it carried out testing on a section of the bridge – with part of the road surface removed to inspect the welds – after cracking was found in the road surface mirroring the welds and indicating a potential issue.

From the sample inspected, it’s likely that 25 per cent of the welds are affected and need replacing.

During the work, tents will be erected over the work area to ensure it can continue in poor weather. All uncovered welds will be tested, and defective ones will be milled out, re-welded, tested and ground flush.

At the end of the work, the deck will be blasted clean and then resurfaced.

When the surface is stripped, the scale of the issue will be clearer and help plan a second phase of works, likely to take place in early spring or autumn of next year.