The A354 is a

primary route The United Kingdom has a network of roads, of varied quality and capacity, totalling about . Road distances are shown in miles or yards and UK speed limits are indicated in miles per hour (mph) or by the use of the national speed limit (NSL) sy ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

which runs from

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

to Easton on the

Isle of Portland An isle is an island, land surrounded by water. The term is very common in British English. However, there is no clear agreement on what makes an island an isle or its difference, so they are considered synonyms. Isle may refer to: Geography * Is ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

, a total distance of . From Salisbury the road crosses

Cranborne Chase Cranborne Chase () is an area of central southern England, straddling the counties Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire. It is part of the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The area is dominated by, ...

. At

Woodyates Woodyates is a Hamlet (place), hamlet, sometimes considered a village, in the county of Dorset, near its border with Wiltshire, in the west of England. History The name means "wood gates" and is believed to refer to the position of Woodyates a ...

the road follows the route of

Ackling Dyke Ackling Dyke is a section of Roman road in England which runs for southwest from Old Sarum (''Sorviodunum'') to the hill fort at Badbury Rings (''Vindocladia''). Part of the road on Oakley Down has been scheduled as an ancient monument. Much ...

, a

Roman Road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

for a short distance. The A354 briefly merges with the

A350 The Airbus A350 is a long-range, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner developed and produced by Airbus. The first A350 design proposed by Airbus in 2004, in response to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, would have been a development of the A330 w ...

at the

Blandford Forum Blandford Forum ( ), commonly Blandford, is a market town in Dorset, England, sited by the River Stour, Dorset, River Stour about northwest of Poole. It was the administrative headquarters of North Dorset District until April 2019, when this ...

bypass before crossing the

Dorset Downs The Dorset Downs are an area of chalk downland in the centre of the county Dorset in south west England. The downs are the most western part of a larger chalk formation which also includes (from west to east) Cranborne Chase, Salisbury Plain, Ham ...

and merging with the A35 at the

Puddletown Puddletown is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is situated by the River Piddle, from which it derives its name, about northeast of the county town Dorchester. Its earlier name Piddletown fell out of favour, probably because o ...

bypass. to the west it splits from the Dorchester bypass and runs south. The road now bypasses Upwey and

Broadwey Broadwey was a former village in the northern suburbs of Weymouth, Dorset, England. It lies on the B3159 road. In 2001, Broadwey and Upwey ward had a population of 4,349. St Nicholas' Church serves the suburb, as did Broadwey Methodist Chur ...

on a new section of road which has some two lane sections going north and one lane continuously going south towards Weymouth. After the old and new sections meet at Manor Roundabout the road follows down Weymouth Way alongside

Radipole Lake Radipole Lake is a lake on the River Wey, now in the English coastal town of Weymouth, Dorset, once in Radipole, the village and parish of the same name. Along the western shore of the lake, and between Radipole and the town centre of Weymouth, ...

. The final stretch runs across a short bridge over

Chesil beach Chesil Beach (also known as Chesil Bank) in Dorset, England is one of three major shingle beach structures in Britain.A. P. Carr and M. W. L. Blackley, "Investigations Bearing on the Age and Development of Chesil Beach, Dorset, and the Associat ...

onto Portland. Historically the section between Dorchester and Fortuneswell was part of the A37 with the extension to Easton being the original B3154. This section of the A37 became part of the A354 in 1935 but the B3154 was only renumbered as part of the A354 in the 1980s.

Weymouth Relief Road

The project was to build a single carriageway road, with crawler lane along part, linking the A354 Manor Roundabout near Radipole to the A354 at the top of the Ridgeway Hill. The main carriageway of the Weymouth Relief Road opened on Thursday 17 March 2011. The 2012 Olympics at Portland played a major factor in making £89m funding for the road available.

The History of Improving the A354 Dorchester Road

References

External links

Dorset for you - Weymouth Relief Road
{{DEFAULTSORT:3-0354 Roads in England Roads in Dorset Roads in Wiltshire