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Wessex Way - what the pfd is going on?! - Phoenicks
I know they\'re doing work on the Wessex Way but why does it always seem to be closed at the moment?!
Wessex Way - what the h***s going on?! - No Do$h
'salright. They're starting work on the Wallisdown/Mountbatten Arms roundabout in the next two weeks. If you think things are bad now.......
Wessex Way - what the h***s going on?! - Phoenicks
i dont envy you!!!!

I only get the joy of driving the WW each day. It just seems to be closed all the time due to accidents.
Wessex Way - what the PFD is going on?! - No Do$h
At least my M3 jaunt is relatively temporary. I do it once or twice a week and stay up in London the remainder of the time, back to Poole at weekends.

Wessex Way is a nightmare as it is (rightly) a 50 limit at the Southern end, but this seems to cause bunching and everybody seems to be surprised when a car wants to join at an on-slip.

It's worse at Blackwater Junction where you come over a crest at 70 to find everyone has their brakes on due to the ridiculously short sliproad not allowing people to get up to speed to join the road.

I avoid it like the plague.
Wessex Way - what the PFD is going on?! - SpamCan61 {P}
Police closed the wessex way both ways at the blackwater junction due to accidents @ around 5:30 pm. Am I glad I live just east of this little lot...:-/
Wessex Way - what the PFD is going on?! - Phoenicks
I wondered why i had to go through northbourne/parley/ferndown to get Verwood. What a nightmare. 20 minute journey took 55 minutes.

What happened?
Wessex Way - what the PFD is going on?! - SpamCan61 {P}
Not sure of the detail: I was pony dodging on the forest roads at the time :-/ but there had been an earlier accident northbound; then a shunt southbound at the same spot (rubbernecking?). They really, really need to sort that junction out.

For backroomers North of Winchester; the junction we are on about is in the middle of this map tinyurl.com/23wg3

To get onto the Bournemouth road you have to negotiate a tight 180 degree slip road, and then merge into a busy NSL dual carriageway, in zero space. On the scary side of 'exciting' unless you have a very quick car.
Wessex Way - what the PFD is going on?! - No Do$h
:o) Had a scooby behind me on that slip a couple of weekends back. We both held back to let the doddery old codgers get out, then floored it. Scooby got a screenful of smoke and backed off, then ripped past me at loony mph, only to come off after a mile at Cooper Dean.

I dunno. Some people just aren't prepared to see a diesel estate car with more than the average BHP.
Wessex Way - what the PFD is going on?! - Steve G
I never realised there are so many people in the backroom from the Bournemouth/Poole area.
Fortunately I rarely use the Wessex Way. If anything the 50MPH has caused more minor accidents. The bunching up of traffic (as No Dosh mentioned) seems to catch people out.
Wessex Way - what the PFD is going on?! - Phoenicks
I agree with you Steve. Sorry No Dosh I have to disagree with you

The wessex way has just become one big traffic jam with more accidents since they moved it to a 50mph limit. With no justification or reason apart from revenue.
Wessex Way - what the PFD is going on?! - patpending
anyone else looking at this link, the junction is one click to the NW.

the mixture of aerial photo and OS map is amazing, I've never seen that before.

pat
Wessex Way - what the PFD is going on?! - SpamCan61 {P}
Well Monday's crash made the local rag at least :- www.thisisbournemouth.com/dorset/bournemouth/news/...l
Wessex Way - what the PFD is going on?! - PhilW
"a tight 180 degree slip road"
OK I've been on the whisky, but if 90 degrees is right-angles to left and right, and 360 degrees is going back the way you came shouldn't 180 degrees be going straight on?
Confused as a newt
Phil
Wessex Way - what the PFD is going on?! - No Do$h
It's a 360.

The reason I think 50 is warranted is down to the number of short slip roads on the WW, with many people only coming on for one or two junctions. At 70, people stand no chance of safely joining the carriageway. The Richmond hill (eastbound) onlsip is a classic example. Also, I have less than fond memories of watching the local Nova brigade attempting the off-camber Bournemouth West roundabout at 70 and finding their car facing me 50 yds down the road!

The problems are simply caused by too many people failing to allow adequate space between them and the car in front. Few crashes on the wessex way involve just 2 vehicles. It's normally a veritable concertina of folded cars.
Wessex Way - what the PFD is going on?! - SR
How does making a road 50mph limited generate revenue?

Aren't accidents caused by inattentive/incompetent drivers, not lower speed limits?
Wessex Way - what the PFD is going on?! - No Do$h
They installed Scameras immediately after the limit was dropped. Local gestapo also use mobile cameras in the last 200 yds of the 50 limit, just prior to NSL/70
Wessex Way - what the PFD is going on?! - SpamCan61 {P}
Well as I enter the slip road my car is pointing roughly North; as I merge onto the main road my car is pointing South; so I make that 180 degrees ..ish..;-). Anyway it's rather like trying to turn out of a side road straight into a busy 70 m.p.h. dual carriageway, really difficult at busy times.
Wessex Way - what the PFD is going on?! - commerdriver
Phil 360 degrees is a complete circle so you carry on the way you were going 180 degrees would turn you to face the opposite direction
Wessex Way - what the pfd is going on?! - joshua
Hi all,
just to add that I didnt realise how many backroomers are from the area.
Certainly agree with you with regards to all the traffic jams i and around Castle Lane and Castlepoint.

Regards.

Lytchett Matravers
Wessex Way - what the pfd is going on?! - Jase
Me Too!

I live about 2/3 of a mile from the Richmond Hill junction of the Wessex Way. I agree that joining the road heading Eastbound (towards the station) is a nightmare. Very dangerous crest of a hill etc.. Strangely I actually like the other junction that people are discussing! I love zooming round the long 180 bend in the Cupra and blasting up to speed. Bit childish I know.

Wessex Way - what the pfd is going on?! - No Do$h
Oooh, I love it too, but only if I can hold back for the first 1/3rd to make sure that any dawdlers in front are clear. Then you can start to wind it up, take an early look back past the dirty great gorse bush that obstructs your visibility when on the slip proper, then Blammo!

Not as much fun as the Avon Causeway.... Now there's a road with a few skidmarks with stories to tell.
Wessex Way - what the pfd is going on?! - patpending
I presume the B3347 on the aerial photo excerpt is the original A338, the Wessex Way being the new road.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the Wessex Way partly built on the original rail link from Southampton to Bournemouth (East) via Ringwood and Hurn? makes you wonder what that would be like if they had retained the track!

pat