Local Road Issues
Traffic Diversions
Rowstock Residents Association (RRA) has long been concerned about traffic growth on the A4130, A4185 and A417 route, particularly the noise and pollution generated by HGVs and from overnight A34 diversions.
The section of the A34 between the Milton and Chilton Interchanges is heavily used, capacity limited and sensitive to disruption. Typically, challenges arise because of regular peak time congestion, big delays when something goes wrong and roadworks making things worse. Over the last 25 years the average daily traffic for the A34 between the 2 interchanges has increased by over 20%.All this has a knock-on impact on the surrounding villages, especially Rowstock.
This is because the National Highways designated diversion for the A34 between those 2 interchanges is through Rowstock. This results in sudden gridlock around Rowstock roundabout, queues backing up onto local roads and junctions resulting in extended and unpredictable journey times along with the resultant noise and pollution affecting residents along the route.
Rowstock roundabout is widely recognised as being one of the pinch points on this route.
On a wider basis this road serves Milton Park, Harwell campus, growing housing areas around Wantage and Didcot and will form part of the link between the Harwell and Culham campuses. Local growth has resulted in a significant increase in traffic over time. Further planned housing developments and employment sites at Milton Park and Harwell campus will further add to traffic numbers along this route.
Why is all this important? Because in short, following the increase in the size of the proposed reservoir from 100 billion to 150 billion litres, TW earmarked an additional 5 entry points to the south and west of the site in addition to the original, single, entry point on the A415 adjacent to the A34 Marcham Interchange.
Our detailed analysis of the documentation provided by Thames Water (TW) revealed some serious issues that had not been sufficiently flagged in the presentation material used in the consultation.
This change in traffic routes will generate a daily total of 81 HGV movements using the designated route from the A34 Milton Interchange along the A4130 through Rowstock roundabout then along the A417 through the Hendred’s and Ardington, through Wantage and then northwards on the A338 before entering the site from the west. This amounts to a circuitous route of 12 miles through populated settlements to be used by 81 huge vehicles every working day for the length of project – expected to be 10 years, maybe longer- rather than using the main access point on the A415 which is not a populated area and right next to the Marcham interchange. These movements will inflict considerable noise, pollution and nuisance on residents living along the route for the length of the project.
Several points raised by RRA during the consultation were sent to TW for clarification, at their suggestion, but they went unanswered.
RRA’s view is that the proposals put forward by TW in relation to construction traffic are insufficiently clear and lack detailed numbers by type of vehicle, timespans and impact on residents’ wellbeing and that of the environment more generally. This issue was not given sufficient prominence in the consultation process.
In short the A4130 is already acting as a local road, commuter route and an A34 diversion but it was never designed to be all three. To allow it to also become the key route for traffic to and from one of the biggest infrastructure project in the UK is sheer madness.
The Video clips below show the type of noise experienced by local residents during overnight road closures of the A34, resulting in heavy goods vehicles diverting onto a road network through residential areas.