Diggers at work on the demolition of the old Porton Road bridge across the A303 at Solstice Park on Saturday. DA5859P2BRIDGE demolition work brought huge traffic tailbacks to south Wiltshire on Saturday - but not as bad as many people had feared.

The main A303 holiday road was closed between Cholderton and Amesbury for the weekend while contractors knocked down the old Porton Road bridge at Solstice Park.

A small last minute change to the diversion route sent traffic to the A30, Andover to Salisbury road instead of the A338.

Traffic travelling into Salisbury on the A30 London Road stretched back nearly to Lopcombe Corner but although progress was slow there were not the serious traffic jams many feared.

Drivers used Salisbury's ring road between St Mark's roundabout and Castle Road roundabout and then on to the Salisbury to Amesbury road to get back on to the A303.

A spokesman for Salisbury police said the weekend had passed by "quite well."

He said there were tailbacks, some delays, but "no great grief."

The Highways Agency said the last minute decision to switch traffic from the A303 at Andover on to the A30 had "worked well" with "no huge hiccups" considering it was a busy summer weekend.

Work to demolish the Porton Road bridge started on Friday evening and was completed ahead of schedule.

It was intended to keep the A303 closed until the early hours of Monday but contractors completed the job on Sunday afternoon and both lanes of the A303 were reopened on Sunday evening.

Concrete rubble from the bridge was transported to the nearby Solstice Park business estate where it will be crushed and recycled for use in buildings and roads.

Five demolition machines worked over the weekend to remove the bridge, breaking it up with huge crusher jaws and allowing the lumps to fall onto a bed of sand on the A303 from where it was transported by six dump trucks to Solstice Park.

The demolition of the bridge is the final phase of the £8m contract to build a new junction and flyover at Solstice Park, which led to the closure of the A303 on two earlier occasions when the new bridge was lifted into place.

No more closures of the A303 are planned although there will be lane closures during weekdays to allow new sewers to be put in and the tidying up of the banks either side of the former bridge.

Contractors Mowlems have until July 16 to complete all works and indications are that the target deadline will be met.