Delay warning as A35 through New Forest shuts for new bridge

The new bridge is being built alongside the existing bridge

Part of a major route through the New Forest has shut for three months to build and fit a new bridge.

The 113-year-old Holmsley Bridge, which carries the A35 is being replaced.

An eight mile (14km) stretch of the road and the C10 which runs underneath the bridge will remain closed until April.

Traffic is being diverted via Brockenhurst and Lymington with Hampshire County Council advising drivers to prepare for disruption.

The £5.5 million scheme will see the new bridge built alongside the existing bridge, and then the old steel bridge removed.

It comes during £25m works on the A31 at Ringwood to create a third lane on a 0.6-mile (1km) stretch.

Work to widen the A31 at Ringwood, on the Hampshire-Dorset border, will last until November 2022

The work on the Hampshire-Dorset border, will also see two new bridges built over the River Avon and Bickerley Mill Stream. A contraflow system will be in place on the A31 by 26 January until November 2022.

The two sets of road works have prompted New Forest organisations to issue a plea to drivers to stick to the official diversions.

The New Forest National Park Authority said: "If drivers divert from the official detours onto unfenced Forest roads, a spike in animal accident deaths may well result."

The New Forest is one of the largest remaining areas of unenclosed land where commoners' cattle, ponies and donkeys roam throughout the open heath.