IN Brief:
- Devon County Council has opened the new 800-metre Dinan Way extension in Exmouth.
- The road is carrying traffic while the final A376 roundabout and associated utility works are completed.
- The wider scheme was approved within a £13.025 million cost envelope and is expected to finish by year-end.
Devon County Council has opened the new 800-metre Dinan Way extension in Exmouth, putting the link road into service while construction continues around its connection with the A376. Traffic is now using the completed section as contractors move through the final roundabout, utility, drainage, kerb, footway, and highway works.
The opening changes the construction sequence rather than marking completion of the project. A short section of the A376 between Courtlands Cross and Courtlands Lane has closed to through traffic so that the permanent roundabout tie-in can be built, with vehicles diverted along Dinan Way and Hulham Road. Temporary traffic arrangements are also operating on surrounding roads while the remaining works progress.
The completed link runs for around 800 metres between Hulham Road and the A376 and includes a new roundabout at Hulham Road, drainage infrastructure, surface-water attenuation ponds, and a retaining wall approximately six metres high. Once the western connection is complete, the route is intended to provide an alternative approach into Exmouth while improving access towards employment areas including Dinan Way Trading Estate and Liverton Business Park.
The A376 tie-in has been one of the more complicated elements because of the concentration of existing underground services. Recorded utilities require diversion by third parties before parts of the permanent highway can be completed, creating programme dependencies that sit partly outside the main road contractor’s direct control. Devon has also cited adverse weather during earlier earthworks and supply-chain problems among the factors affecting delivery.
The wider scheme was approved within a £13.025 million cost envelope, with funding assembled from the UK Government, Devon County Council, East Devon District Council, and Exmouth Town Council. Octavius Infrastructure is delivering the construction works, having been appointed as the scheme moved from design and approvals into physical delivery.
Opening the main length before completing the final junction is a practical way of using finished infrastructure to unlock the remaining construction. Instead of keeping the entire road closed until the A376 works are complete, the new link now forms part of the temporary diversion route, giving the contractor additional working space around the live highway while maintaining access into and out of Exmouth.
That approach still leaves a demanding traffic-management period. Utility diversions, drainage, kerbs, footways, and highway widening have to be completed beside roads that remain important to local residents, businesses, and through traffic. Temporary signals and altered routes will continue to be required as individual work fronts move across the final section.
The remaining programme also includes widening part of the A376 footway to improve pedestrian and cycle provision. These elements are less visually prominent than the new carriageway, but they determine how the completed junction works for users outside vehicles and have to be coordinated with drainage, lighting, utilities, and final surfacing.
Highway projects of this scale can appear straightforward beside major bridges or motorway schemes, yet suburban tie-ins often concentrate risk into the final few hundred metres. Existing utilities, property access, live traffic, limited working space, and temporary traffic arrangements can govern the programme more strongly than the main earthworks once the bulk of the new road is already in place.
Dinan Way also has a development role beyond easing current traffic. Devon has linked the extension to future housing at Goodmores Farm and to improved movement of larger vehicles between the A376 and commercial areas on the eastern side of Exmouth. Completion of the final junction therefore affects both current congestion and the road network’s ability to accommodate additional development.
The new road is now performing two roles at once: part of the permanent transport network and part of the temporary construction strategy needed to finish the scheme. That places additional emphasis on traffic management, road-user segregation, signage, and coordination between the remaining works and the live carriageway.
Devon currently expects the complete scheme to finish by the end of 2026. The 9 September opening removes one major programme uncertainty by bringing the main link into use, but the project will not deliver its intended permanent traffic pattern until the A376 roundabout, utility works, drainage, footways, and final highway interfaces are complete.
