Newbury traffic grinds to a halt once again...

A339 lane closures expected to go ahead as planned despite wide-spread disruption

NEWBURY'S road network is once again became gridlocked today as a result of the A339 lane closures.

Northbound traffic was queueing from the Robin Hood roundabout back to the Sandelford link with motorists enduring another frustrating day on the town's roads.

Sainsbury's roundabout was brought to a standstill with drivers unable to enter from Bear Lane because of the jam, while Kings road was also gridlocked.

Despite the disruption West Berkshire Council has said the lane closures between the Robin Hood roundabout and Sainsbury's will go ahead over the next few days as planned.

The dual carriageway, one of the busiest routes through Newbury, has been subject to off peak lane closures since Monday causing severe problems on Newbury's roads.

Delays of up to an hour were reported on Tuesday, Wednesday and again today by angry drivers stuck in their cars while trying to make their way form one end of the town to the other.

The road is expected to be reduced to a single lane in both directions between 9.30am and 3.30pm until Wednesday (October 5) (weekdays only) leaving many motorists dreading the thought of travelling through Newbury.

However West Berkshire council has said it is doing all it can to minimise the impact of the road works.

West Berkshire Council spokesperson Peta Stoddart-Crompton said: "We are mitigating the effects of congestion by opening up the road to traffic as soon as possible after work has finished.

"We can’t work at night because road surfacing operations are noisy – this means we would have to finish work at 11pm due to the proximity of nearby residential properties.

"So we would have a very short working shift, 7pm to 11pm. It takes at least 30 minutes to get the cones in place for the lane closures and another 30 minutes to put them back, so that leaves us with a three hour shift. This would cost more money and increase the overall duration of the project."

The works will see the A339 widened and a new traffic-signal controlled junction installed, which will allow motorists access onto the London Road Industrial estate.

Work began in February this year and is expected to last 12 months.