Part is constructed along the trackbed of the former Ringwood, Christchurch and Bournemouth Railway which closed in 1935. Originally, the A338 went from Ringwood to Christchurch on the east side of the valley, along what is now the B3347. Central Bournemouth speed limit The Bournemouth Town Centre section of the A338 Wessex Way is carried on viaducts across the Bourne Valley. On 21 January 2010 Bournemouth Borough Council imposed a 40 mph speed limit on this section of A338 dual carriageway (between Bournemouth West Roundabout and St Paul's Roundabout) in an attempt to reduce the accident rate of 198 accidents in four years. The experimental speed limit was run for six months and provoked fierce opposition from the town's residents, with a protest group on Facebook gaining thousands of members who argued that other options such as improving the slip-road lengths should have been trialled before lowering the speed limit. Repair work and funding In 1975 an underpass for the Wessex Way was built underneath Richmond Hill Roundabout in Richmond Hill, Bournemouth. In February 2011 it was announced that £20m of funding for repair works on the stretch south of the junction with the A31 was turned down by the government. Dorset County Council had planned to start work in September 2010, but had to await funding following a Spending Review. As a result of the funding request being unsuccessful, ad hoc work will now be carried out over a number of years instead of a period of about 6 months as originally planned. Dorset and Bournemouth councils are expected to meet the cost of the ad hoc work at around £1m per year. Ringwood to Salisbury upgrade campaign The section of A338 between the A31 dual carriageway at Ringwood and Salisbury's A36 Churchill Way is built on a substandard single carriageway alignment with multiple sharp bends as the road follows the line of the River Avon. This section of the road has a poor safety record; it is heavily trafficked and the resulting risky overtaking is responsible for a number of head-on collisions. Following four fatal head-on collision accidents in 2008 alone, local residents have renewed their calls for the road to be upgraded to dual carriageway to provide a safe overtaking facility and deal with the capacity problems. Culture The A338 figures in Thomas Hardy's 'Jude the Obscure', chapter 3. The point where the road crests the downs