The subject of roadworks on Heathlands Road was raised at the January meeting of the full council of Wokingham borough council.
Roberta Brooks asked Cllr Adrain Betteridge, the executive member for active travel, transport and highways: “Roadworks for the new south Wokingham distributor road are causing disruption for people travelling between Crowthorne and Wokingham Without and Wokingham town.
“What has been done to minimise the impact of this and when can we expect to see the roads return to normal?”
In reply, Cllt Betteridge said: “Thank you for your question.
“I understand how disruptive road works can be. The new road and the services for it cross or feed into existing roads which, at times, need to be closed or have traffic management for the work to happen.
“The programme has been phased to avoid major closures overlapping and has been adjusted to maintain traffic flow where possible, and we do place a premium on completing each piece of work on schedule.
“We cannot mitigate all impacts, but I can assure you that traffic management and diversions are considered carefully.
“Any additional requests, for example from utility companies, are considered on their merits and, if they cause significant conflict with existing closures, they are refused, where possible and appropriate.
“The south Wokingham distributor road project is progressing as planned.
“The closure of Finchampstead Road under the rail bridge was removed on schedule, which has eased congestion crossing the railway travelling in or out of town to the south.
“Heathlands Road is on track to reopen by mid-February, subject to resolving some risks that the team is still managing.
“There are further major works to complete on Finchampstead Road and Easthampstead Road, but the project will ensure these do not overlap other than occasional overnight closures.
“The Western Gateway at Finchampstead Road is on track to reopen fully by April this year.
“The Central section of the new road will open later this year, with some works, such as landscaping, being finished in early 2027.”
In her supplementary question, Robera asked :”In addition to that the diversion route avoiding Heathlands Road goes through the junction of Easthampstead Road and Old Wokingham Road, quite near my house.
“That is considered by many people to be unsafe. “What would be the advice that you would give to those people?”
Cllr Betteridge replied: “As you say, this is the official diversion route.
#”It was selected with careful consideration of the most appropriate diversion route for the short section of Heathlands Road which is closed.
“I am aware that some drivers, my wife included, tend to avoid that junction, finding it challenging, by using Heathland Road, which obviously at the moment they cannot do.
“There are alternative routes which can be used, albeit they are longer, which is why we have not made them the official diversion route, but if you are travelling longer distances sometimes, they can be just as appropriate and not significantly longer overall.
“As with everywhere on the roads, the advice I would give is to leave plenty of time for your journey, so you do not feel the need to take unnecessary risks.
“At the moment, with the planned closures that we have, plan extra time in your journey to accommodate this.
“We publish all of the roadworks and the emergency roadworks as soon as we see them, on our social media traffic and travel page, and ton One.Network which tracks roadworks and their completion dates across the whole country, including in Wokingham, where people can check if they want to know of any new roadworks, or when existing roadworks are due to be removed.
“I will add, in the longer term, surrounding this junction there are proposals in the Local Plan, which if accepted and taken forwards, and there is a diagram in there called the south Wokingham concept plan, which is just that, a concept plan.
“It illustrates how more significant changes to this junction may happen in the longer term.”
