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DRIVERS can breathe some relief after work to repair a collapsed manhole was completed, relieving a major route from some of its heavy congestion.

Temporary traffic lights were hurriedly installed on the A31 between Wimborne and Sturminster Marshall after a manhole cover fell in on Sunday. It caused queues that held people up for up to an hour and the worst was feared as hundreds of thousands of people head for two of Dorset's biggest events, the Bournemouth Air Festival, which starts on Thursday, and the Great Dorset Steam Fair, which runs until Sunday.

At one point BT, which is responsible for the manhole, said that work to fix the problem could take days. But the firm managed to repair the manhole on Wednesday and the road was fully reopened.

Some 200,000 people are expected to descend on the steam fair at Blandford, while an estimated half a million are set to head to Bournemouth for the air festival. Traffic built up on the A354 in both directions at Tarrant Hinton, with congestion back to the A350, as visitors headed for the first day of the steam fair.