traffic in Newbury Options

[Bill Kenikabs]

Why do we have so much traffic in Newbury?? Because it is caught up in the rush to get out ....... the main reason is because the called this ring road the A339 when it should be a B road ensuring that through traffic avoids the town this must lay with Highways and our Goverment lucky they do not drive to Newbury or come shopping here.

[royston]

Coming back to the original rant about traffic using the A339, a good deal of this is en route to Basingstoke after coming off the A34 north of Newbury because its a good deal shorter than going to ToT Hill or going all the way to Join the the A303 then driving east to Basingstoke. and who can blame them ?

[Biker1]

Coming back to the original rant about traffic using the A339, a good deal of this is en route to Basingstoke after coming off the A34 north of Newbury because its a good deal shorter than going to ToT Hill or going all the way to Join the the A303 then driving east to Basingstoke. and who can blame them ?

That's right - this, and the heavy traffic at Thatcham Level Crossing, is a result of the by-pass being built on the wrong side of Newbury.

[royston]

That's right - this, and the heavy traffic at Thatcham Level Crossing, is a result of the by-pass being built on the wrong side of Newbury.

could not agree more,said so at time ,argued with planners but they knew best I was only a pleb. so had no view.

[Andy Capp]

could not agree more,said so at time ,argued with planners but they knew best I was only a pleb. so had no view.

I suspect cost to build was a greater concern than where it went.

[Biker1]

I suspect cost to build was a greater concern than where it went.

Correct.
Financially (not environmentally) it was cheaper to go West.
Money Talks!!

[Exhausted]

Correct.
Financially (not environmentally) it was cheaper to go West.
Money Talks!!

Environmentally the Eastern route proposed by SPEWBY, carved a swathe by increasing the width across the Newtown Common to dual carriageway and would have caused irrepairable damage to the Thatcham reed beds affecting both resident and migrating birds. It also passed close to a fairly dense housing area affecting 250 homes. The route also required a major junction with the A4 which because of its elevation would be intrusive on the local environment.

Cost was a factor (assuming the extra cost of security was factored out) but for good reason as the SPEWBY route was costed at £80m and the Western route at £47m, almost double but the major reason was that the Eastern propsal did not give a clean bypass route with major curves and almost certain 50mph speed limits on the section that went round the back of the racecourse.

The central routes also proposed were non runners, requiring elevated sections through the town over what is now the A339 and rough costings were over £110m.

Initially, the inspector was not convinced about the Western route but came to the conclusion that it was the only sensible solution and was the less damaging route.

He did say in conclusion that when the bypass was completed, it would not solve Newbury's traffic problems past the design date; 2009. but by then, the local authorities would be able to introduce measures to resolve their residual local traffic problems.

[Biker1]

He did say in conclusion that when the bypass was completed, it would not solve Newbury's traffic problems

It certainly didn't do that!

The by-pass was nothing to do with Newbury's local traffic problems but a way of getting juggernauts from the North and Midlands to the South Coast without obstruction.
Newbury was in the way of that.
No point in getting into the by-pass debate as it was dead and gone the day construction started.

[dannyboy]

It certainly didn't do that!

The by-pass was nothing to do with Newbury's local traffic problems but a way of getting juggernauts from the North and Midlands to the South Coast without obstruction.
Newbury was in the way of that.
No point in getting into the by-pass debate as it was dead and gone the day construction started.

It was bleedin obvious this was the case at the time. The local politicos just jumped on the local bandwagon claiming it was a Newbury Issue.

The A34 is just a small part of the E05 Algiceras - Greenock route & the bit around Newbury was one of only a few bottlenecks on the entire 3000km route.