Perhaps they will put up signs for the duration - Newbury Closed please find alternative route?

Having lost 20 minutes of my life sat in non moving traffic between Halfords and the po;ice roundabout this evening around 6pm , one may not have to wait to long .

The King's Road roundabout seems to be the biggest bottleneck on the A339 through Newbury. At busy times there are always queues leading up to it in each direction, then the road is usually clear the other side.

I don't know if there is any viable solution to this, though a North-South underpass would probably help. It might increase traffic waiting to go North at the Robin Hood, but not by much. More intelligent traffic lights might help by measuring the length of queues in all directions.

Or maybe turn off the traffic lights as traffic seems to move better if the lights are not working

I seriously might have to dust off the bike and consider cycling into work....



And the Hambridge Road works have months and months of disruption yet to come. The next phase once they've looked at the roundabout is to improve the access road up to the A4 and that involves widening works to add an extra lane in either direction...

All we need next is for the Boundary Road bridge to develop serious structural problems (it's a VERY old bridge and is only just clinging on to the parapets)


With the Highways Agency reducing the A339 to single lane working wasn't this an idea that was suggested by WBC to encourage traffic from Basingstoke to turn off and use the Tot Hill junction for the A34 rather than trundle through the centre of town? Any conspiracy theorists here?

Oh come on, your last comment would assume there is a logical plan!

Presumably it will be replaced in the near future as part of the electrification works? Wouldn't it be fun if they started next month!

Ah yes, reducing traffic. It's a more direct route t get to the A34 and that being said, people have free will to go and if people want to go that way, the council should not just "say no".

That being said, think Newbury is bad, M1 is even worse so is the A34.

And they said the by-pass was going to solve everything!!

It is being replaced, yes.
I understand there is some debate over how wide etc. to make it when rebuilt.

WBC to encourage traffic from Basingstoke to turn off and use the Tot Hill junction for the A34 rather than trundle through the centre of town? Any conspiracy theorists here?

Encourage through traffic to use a by-pass? What a crazy idea.

In my opinion ,which may or may not be correct , the problem stems from the the pure volume of traffic trying to get from Newbury to Thatcham , and back . This is based on the queue at the Robin Hood roundabout which snakes back towards the police roundabout . Now this is "local" traffic and the only way to alleviate the congestion is remove all junctions thus increasing the throughput . Anyone who uses the duel carriageway from the police station will be fully aware that the outside lane ,which ostensibly is for the A34 , is used by those who need the A4 and then try to filter in at the lights . This has no bearing on the volume / hour just the blood pressure of those in the correct lane.

That's the problem , anyone know the answer ?

Because a great many people either go into Newbury Centre or go on the A4 to Hungerford, most times you end up in the right hand lane and when it splits in 3 lanes, you find yourself in the correct lane to go to Thatcham.
There is a lot of traffic at Peak Times lately, much more so than usual, wonder why. :|

You are wrong, young sir. The right hand lane doesn't split and continues to the A339 north. The left hand lane splits into two, one for westbound A4 or town centre and the other lane is for eastbound A4/A4009, i.e. the correct lane to go to Thatcham. If you cross over from the right lane to the centre lane, then you are carving other people up.

No, read what I said, I didn't say that the lane SPLIT into that way, I'm saying that when you are actually driving, normally the cars in the left hand lane tend to filter off to Newbury centre or the left hand left of the 3 to go to Hungerford way.

I know the first lane splits into 2 and the 3rd is for the A34, I'm just saying that in practical terms that's not what happens.

No because the drivers doing the 'right' thing are slow moving & thus it is easy for the impatient drivers to wizz along in the R lane, only to cut back in to the middle lane after the L hand lane splits so they can get to Thatcham 60 seconds earlier.

I did read what you said, and took issue with "you find yourself in the correct lane to go to Thatcham". No, you don't.

The A339 work at Headley looks to be nearly finished. Went through there yesterday and it's was 2 lanes heading to Basingstoke but single line coming back 2 hours later. All it seems to need is surfacing, lines painting and a bit of a sweep up.

No matter how well the road markings are people will go in the right hand lane and then cut back in if left lane has a que. Amuses me though as i then see the same drivers once past the lights cut up drivers who are heading to the m4/a34

Those 60 seconds can be important.