A LONG-STANDING petrol filling station on the A38 is set to close. PDI, the company that runs the Texaco garage at Dobwalls, has announced that it will be shutting off the pumps today. The garage has been a common feature on the busy A38 road for more than 40 years but, after construction started on the new Dobwalls bypass, locals are not surprised by the news. 'It was always on the cards,' said cllr George Hocking who lives in Dobwalls. 'PDI had only come in on a temporary basis and was going to run the station until the new bypass was completed in 2008 but, for whatever reason, it has decided the close the garage now.' Meanwhile, despite concerns that work on the bypass had fallen behind schedule over the summer, the project is now making good progress – although work is to halt over Christmas. Heavy rain during the summer left the £33m scheme some six weeks behind, but a spokesman for the Highways Agency said this week that the contractors had managed to reduce that figure as a result of the better weather in recent months, with completion due next autumn. A new lane on the original dual carriageway at Moorswater opened to traffic this week, enabling work on the new distributor road, linking the industrial estate with Dobwalls, to proceed. The distributor road is due to open in mid to late January when traffic from the existing A38 will be diverted on to it, in turn enabling work on the Looe Mills junction and the new dual carriageway to be completed. Work on the scheme will be suspended over the Christmas holidays, from December 21 to January 7.
