The A35 shuts 8pm to 6am between Stinsford and Bere Regis every weeknight until 5 September, and a 12-week job at a Weymouth junction starts on 7 September.

Dorset is a large rural county with two trunk roads and very few alternatives to them. When the A35 or the A37 shuts, the diversion is not a parallel dual carriageway. It is a lane through a village. That is why a road closure here matters more than the same closure would in a town.

This page tracks the Dorset roadworks that are genuinely booked and dated. Everything below was checked on 21 August 2026 against Dorset Council’s own live programme of road works and the National Highways seven day closure report, which covers 20 to 26 August.

Closed right now

The A35 between Stinsford and Bere Regis is shut overnight, and it stays shut until Saturday 5 September. The closure runs 8pm to 6am, both directions, with a signed diversion. It is the longest run of night closures on the road all summer. National Highways’ own seven day report lists it on Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights in the week to 26 August, and not on Saturday or Sunday nights. The dates come from the National Highways notification published by Charmouth Parish Council.

Two shorter things are booked on the same road:

  • Sunday 23 August, 9pm to 10.30pm. The A35 closes from Miles Cross to the Crown Roundabout at Bridport for the town’s torchlight procession.
  • Friday 28 and Saturday 29 August, 9pm to 5am. The A35 closes at the Miles Cross junction while a temporary barrier and narrower lanes go in for the new roundabout being built there.

On the council’s network, the A37 at Long Ash Lane north of Dorchester is closed 8pm to 6am until Tuesday 25 August. The A37 is the Dorchester to Yeovil road and there is no comfortable night-time alternative, so follow the signed diversion rather than trusting a satnav through the lanes.

What is closed and when

Everything in this section is a full closure. Roads are open outside the hours shown, and the council’s night-time schemes are open at weekends.

Full road closures in Dorset, August to November 2026 Timeline of full road closures affecting Dorset between 17 August and 30 November 2026. A35 Stinsford to Bere Regis, 17 Aug to 5 Sep. A37 Long Ash Lane, to 25 Aug. Buckland Newton, two roads, 28 Aug to 4 Sep. Minterne Magna, Sandy Lane, 7 to 10 Sep. Hinton, The Knapp, 11 Sep. Charlton Down, Herrison Rd, 14 to 15 Sep. West Stafford, Lewell Mill, 16 Sep. Corfe Mullen, Waterloo Road, 17 to 22 Sep. Corfe Mullen, Rushall and Knoll, 23 Sep to 2 Oct. Weymouth Esplanade, 28 Sep to 17 Oct. Wessex Roundabout, Weymouth, 19 to 23 Oct. Weymouth, Abbotsbury Road, 9 to 16 Nov. Full road closures in Dorset, August to November 2026 Dark bars close overnight and reopen by morning. Light bars close in daytime hours only. The A35 is National Highways’ road; the rest are Dorset Council’s. Overnight closure Daytime closure 1 Sep 1 Oct 1 Nov A35 Stinsford to Bere Regis 17 Aug to 5 Sep A37 Long Ash Lane to 25 Aug Buckland Newton, two roads 28 Aug to 4 Sep Minterne Magna, Sandy Lane 7 to 10 Sep Hinton, The Knapp 11 Sep Charlton Down, Herrison Rd 14 to 15 Sep West Stafford, Lewell Mill 16 Sep Corfe Mullen, Waterloo Road 17 to 22 Sep Corfe Mullen, Rushall & Knoll 23 Sep to 2 Oct Weymouth Esplanade 28 Sep to 17 Oct Wessex Roundabout, Weymouth 19 to 23 Oct Weymouth, Abbotsbury Road 9 to 16 Nov Weymouth Esplanade is the longest single closure at twenty nights, and it runs into the October half term week. Sources: Dorset Council live programme of road works and the National Highways seven day closure report, both checked 21 August 2026. Chart by The Dorset Post.
Chart by The Dorset Post from Dorset Council's live programme of road works and the National Highways seven day closure report.

The one to plan around is Weymouth Esplanade, closed overnight from 8pm to 6am between 28 September and 17 October, followed immediately by the Wessex Roundabout from 19 to 23 October. Twenty nights of seafront closure and then the main roundabout into the town, back to back, ending in half term week.

September is heavy on short daytime closures in the villages north of Dorchester and at Corfe Mullen. Two roads at Buckland Newton close 9am to 4pm from 28 August to 4 September. Then Sandy Lane at Minterne Magna (7 to 10 September), The Knapp at Hinton (11 September), Herrison Road at Charlton Down (14 to 15 September), the access road to Lewell Mill at West Stafford (16 September), Waterloo Road at Corfe Mullen (17 to 22 September) and Rushall Lane and Knoll Lane at Corfe Mullen (23 September to 2 October).

The micro surfacing streets get their second visit

The council’s micro surfacing programme is a two-stage job: a removal visit, then a resurfacing visit weeks later. Most of the removal visits happened in July and early August. The resurfacing visits start next week, so a street that was already dug up once is about to be closed again, 8am to 6pm.

  • Broadmayne, 24 to 27 August. Bakers Paddock, High Trees, Osmington Drove, Broadmead, Woodlands and Rectory Road.
  • Dorchester, 27 August. Lucetta Lane. Coburg Road and Edward Road follow on 20 and 21 September, after removal visits on 1 and 2 September.
  • Weymouth, 31 August to 8 September. Chapel Lane, Broadwey Close, Selwyn Close, Pemberton Close, Clayton Close, Jenner Way, Beverley Road, Roman Close and Monmouth Avenue, each for a day or two in turn.
  • Martinstown, 9 and 10 September. Cowleaze and St Martinsfield.
  • Lytchett Matravers, 15 to 18 September. Jennys Lane, whose removal visit runs 19 to 24 August.
  • Corfe Castle, 19 and 20 September. West Street.

Weymouth: 12 weeks of traffic lights from 7 September

Dorset Council starts work on 7 September at the junction of Abbotsbury Road and Chickerell Road, and expects to be finished by Friday 27 November. Temporary two-way traffic signals will be in place on Chickerell Road for the whole of that period. The council’s news release says signals will be on all four approaches to the junction.

The project page also carries a detail the news release leaves out: Abbotsbury Road and Chickerell Road close completely from 9 to 16 November, 8pm to 6am, with a localised signed diversion.

More than 10,000 vehicles a day use Chickerell Road and around 8,000 use Abbotsbury Road, so this is the busiest thing happening on Weymouth’s roads this autumn. The work was scheduled deliberately outside the peak summer holiday period.

The A35, and the handback nobody has mentioned

The A35 is the county’s spine, and for the moment it is not run directly by National Highways at all. The A30 and A35 west of Dorchester are a DBFO concession operated by Connect, with Balfour Beatty doing the work, and that concession hands back to National Highways on 30 September 2026. The summer of closures between Axminster and Bridport, then Bridport to Dorchester, then Stinsford to Bere Regis, is a renewals programme to get the road to the required standard before that handback. That is set out in the National Highways notification republished by Charmouth Parish Council in July, which also names connecta30@balfourbeatty.com as the contact for questions about the works, and confirms that local access inside a closure is maintained by escort if you speak to the gatemen at either end.

The speed limits have also changed. In January 2026 National Highways began delivering the A35 Charmouth to Yellowham speed reduction scheme, a £1.8 million safety project along a 26-mile stretch. The reason given was blunt: the latest five years of validated collision data on that section recorded 199 collisions, 305 casualties and three deaths. The scheme installs average speed cameras in Winterbourne Abbas, Morcombelake and Chideock, and introduces new limits including 50mph between Coombe Road and Monkey’s Jump Roundabout, 50mph between West Stinsford Roundabout and the Cuckoo Lane overbridge, and 30mph between Hollow Way and Howard Road. National Highways said the work would be finished by the end of March 2026 and the restrictions would then be enforceable by police.

The chain ferry

The Sandbanks to Shell Bay chain ferry is the short way between Poole and the Isle of Purbeck, and the alternative is a long drive round through Wareham. It runs every twenty minutes, six crossings an hour, seven days a week, with a four-minute crossing. First sailing from Sandbanks is 7am and the last is 11pm.

The important change: since 1 July 2026 vehicles cannot pay at the barrier. The ferry uses number plate recognition and all vehicle tolls are paid online or through the operator’s app, either as a guest or from a pre-loaded account. Tolls set on 1 April 2026 are £1.18 for a motorbike, £6.26 for a car or van and £12.52 for a goods vehicle or bus.

One caveat, stated plainly: the operator’s website sandbanksferry.co.uk served us a bot challenge on 21 August and we could not read it directly, so we could not check today’s service status. The tolls above are the operator’s published April 2026 figures. Check the live status yourself before you set off, because the ferry does come out of service for weather, tides and scheduled maintenance, and when it does the diversion adds the best part of an hour.

Weymouth park and ride

Weymouth’s Mount Pleasant Park & Ride, just off the A354 on Mercery Road (DT3 5HJ), is the sensible way into the town in summer. Parking is free, provided by Dorset Council, and you pay only for the bus.

First Bus Service 2 runs seven days a week and, since 23 July 2026, peak frequency is every 12 minutes Monday to Saturday and every 15 minutes on Sundays, up from 15 and 20 minutes. A ticket is £6.50 for up to two adults and three children into the town centre. An extra Monday evening trip runs through the summer holidays for the firework displays, with the last bus leaving King’s Statue at 10pm. The council has said the higher frequency is for the summer season, so expect it to drop back in the autumn.

The routes that always catch people out

  • The A35 through Chideock and Morcombelake. Two villages the trunk road runs straight through, now with average speed cameras. Allow more time than the map suggests, in both directions, all year.
  • The A354 into Weymouth. One road carries the seafront, the port, Portland and the park and ride. On a hot Saturday it is the busiest stretch of tarmac in the county.
  • The A31 at Ferndown and Wimborne. The eastern gateway to Dorset and the route most people from the M27 arrive on. It backs up on Friday afternoons in summer and there is no useful parallel route. National Highways closed it in both directions at Canford Bottom overnight on 20 August for electrical work, which is the sort of job that recurs.
  • The B3157 coast road between Weymouth and Bridport. Beautiful, and the standard diversion when the A35 shuts. It is single carriageway, hilly and slow, so a closure that adds “twenty minutes” on paper usually adds more.
  • Corfe Castle in August. The Purbeck road through the village is narrow and the castle car park fills early. The Swanage Railway between Norden and Swanage exists partly to take cars off it.

Frequently asked questions

Is the A35 closed in Dorset this week?

Yes, at night. The A35 between Stinsford and Bere Regis is closed 8pm to 6am on weeknights until 5 September, with a signed diversion, and the road is open as usual in the daytime. The A35 also closes at Miles Cross near Bridport from 9pm to 10.30pm on Sunday 23 August for the torchlight procession, and from 9pm to 5am on 28 and 29 August for roundabout construction.

Where can I check Dorset roadworks?

Dorset Council publishes a roadworks map and a live programme of resurfacing closures with dates. For the A35, A31 and other trunk roads, which the council does not manage, use the National Highways seven day closure report, which is a downloadable spreadsheet listing every closure by day. Dorset Highways’ traffic team can be reached on 01305 221020.

When is the A37 open again at Long Ash Lane?

The overnight closure 8pm to 6am ends on 25 August 2026, according to Dorset Council’s live programme. The road is open in the daytime and at weekends throughout.

Are there speed cameras on the A35 in Dorset?

Yes. National Highways’ Charmouth to Yellowham scheme installs average speed cameras in Winterbourne Abbas, Morcombelake and Chideock, alongside new 30, 40 and 50mph limits along the 26-mile stretch.

How much is the Sandbanks ferry in 2026?

£6.26 for a car or van, £1.18 for a motorbike and £12.52 for a goods vehicle or bus, as set on 1 April 2026. Since 1 July 2026 vehicle tolls must be paid online or by app rather than at the barrier.

Is Weymouth park and ride free?

The parking is free. The bus is £6.50 for up to two adults and three children into the town centre on First Bus Service 2 from Mount Pleasant.

When is Weymouth Esplanade closed?

Overnight, 8pm to 6am, from 28 September to 17 October 2026 for resurfacing, followed by the Wessex Roundabout from 19 to 23 October, according to Dorset Council’s live programme.

Sources

Next: Dorset train times to London if you would rather not drive at all, and things to do in Dorset for where all this traffic is heading.

Dates and prices were correct when checked on 21 August 2026. Roadworks move. Always confirm with the council or National Highways before travelling.