If you plan on visiting the county of Dorset in England any time soon, bring an audiobook. In order to fix a 65-foot section of roadway, workers are sending drivers on a 41-mile detour through the countryside.
Around 65 feet of the A352 in Godmanstone, Dorset, are closed for sewer line replacement over the next week or so. Dover County Council officials have mapped out a detour that takes motorists 41 miles to the north, through an adjacent county.
The Telegraph reports that if you drove the route’s normal 30 mile per hour speed limit, you’d pass the effected stretch of roadway in just over a second. Taking the detour is approximately 3,600 times longer.
If you’re planning to visit, here’s the route you’ll need to remember:
Take the A352 to Charlton Down and Charminster before taking the A37 towards Grimstone.
Follows the A37, crossing the county border into Yeovil, Somerset before joining the A30 towards Sherborne and heading back into Dorset.
Head back south, passing through the villages Middlemarsh, Minterne Magna and Cerne Abbas.
According to the folks in charge, the slightly longer route is necessary because it “has to be suitable for the type of traffic that would normally use the closed section,” adding “Dorset County Council say that the diverted route has to travel along A roads as it is an A road that’s being closed.”
If you’re tempted to sneak through the 65 foot section — about the length of four Toyota Corollas placed end-to-end — you’ll be assessed a fine of £1,000, about $1,200 US dollars.
