FRUSTRATED drivers are facing yet more delays on Wokingham’s roads as work begins on the Suttons Seeds roundabout, adding to the host of major schemes around the borough.
Just as delayed work on the Showcase roundabout nears completion, the first phase of essential maintenance on the A3290 flyover starts on Sunday and is due to last until April 16.
Meanwhile work on the Coppid Beech roundabout will continue for four more months and the final phase of the Station Link Road carries on for around another month.
Work is also underway on the Shinfield Eastern Area relief road and, later in the summer, the second phase of work on the Loddon viaduct starts.
And still in the pipeline is the north and south distributor roads.
Retired TRL employee Adrian Roberts who lives in the north of Wokingham said: “The amount of traffic chaos in Wokingham is awful.
“It almost gives you the impression that the contractors are paid, irrespective of the time it takes.
“There seems to be no incentive to do it quickly.”
Delays to the finish date of the Showcase roundabout prompted comments on The Wokingham Paper’s Facebook page.
Company managing director Liam Swan wrote: “They never seem to be working on it,” and Robert Horskins from Woodley called it the “longest six weeks ever”.
Salli Scott said her husband filmed the junction with a headcam showing no safe provision for cyclists and pedestrians.
But Cllr John Kaiser, Wokingham Borough Council’s executive member for planning and highways, said the council took care to ensure simultaneous works would only be carried out at opposite ends of the borough and that schemes such as Showcase and Sutton Seeds, which were close together, would not overlap.
And he said phasing was also tied to funding.
He added: “We’ve got so much to do because the motorway (Suttons Seeds flyover) is in a pretty poor state but sometimes that means it is time sensitive and sometimes that means we prioritise stuff before the Government funding disappears.”
Suttons Seeds Roundabout
THE first phase of work will involve reducing noisy joints, improving drainage, installing longer lasting safety barriers and a low noise surface starts on Sunday for up to three weeks.
To ensure two lanes of moving traffic throughout, a contraflow will direct vehicles onto the northbound side of the flyover (the Thames Valley Park inbound side) allowing engineers to work on the southbound side (exiting Thames Valley Park). Works will go on 24 hours a day.
Due to funding issues, the second phase of the work is not due to go ahead until 2017.
Loddon viaduct
THE first phase was completed last year with the second phase scheduled for this July and August.
The work, to replace the bridge’s old and noisy joints involves installing new safety barriers, improving drainage and signs and installing quieter surface.
The eastbound carriageway has been completed and work on the westbound carriageway is due to start this summer.
Shinfield Eastern Relief Road
WORK has begun on a new bridge over the M4 with connecting roads and junctions leading to the A327 Arborfield Road, leading to lane closures and temporary traffic lights.
It will also mean a one-way gyratory around the existing Lane End Farmhouse, linking the existing A327 Shinfield Road at its junction with Cutbush Lane.
The old bridge over the M4 will then be converted to a bus lane and foot/cycle way.
Station Link Road
STATION Link Road at Wokingham, for more pedestrian and cycling facilities and improvements along with a contra flow bus lane, waiting area and taxi rank.
There will also be rail safety improvements. The final phase is due for completion during spring.
Showcase roundabout
WORK is due to finish this weekend on the scheme to put in 12 miles of new cabling to serve 64 sets of lights.
It was due to finish last week but the completion date was delayed by a week.
More than 50,000 vehicles go through it every day.
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