The main construction work on the long-awaited A34 Lodge Hill interchange started today (Wednesday 3rd September).
During the day, surveyors could been on site with their theodolites, aimed at the splitter island at the A34 southbound off-slip junction. This island will be the first thing to go, creating more space for construction vehicles to move in and out.
Traffic management is already in place. On the A34, lanes have been narrowed and drivers are being asked to slow down near the works to keep everyone safe. Overnight temporary traffic lights are also running between 9 pm and 5 am on the A4183 and the A34 southbound off-slip while the islands are removed.
Cllr Judy Roberts, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Place, Environment and Climate Action, said: “We have all campaigned for this for so long and it is wonderful news that construction has begun.”
The project, being delivered by Balfour Beatty with support from Homes England, is expected to finish by the end of 2026. When complete, it should reduce through-traffic in Abingdon. A condition for the new homes being built to the north of Abingdon was that the Lodge Hill interchange improvements were funded and built.
You can find more details about the A34 Lodge Hill scheme and traffic management plans on Oxfordshire County Council’s website:
Good. The traffic is dreadful through Abingdon sometimes. The rotten monk on the Tesco roundabout in my view is indicative of the malaise that seems to be occuring in Abingdon. This should be an opportunity to plan a fresh display on the roundabout which is the first roundabout that people meet when accessing Abingdon from the A34. However, the response from Abingdon Town Council was very disappointing. The roundabout and the monk is nothing do do with us!! We already have a defunct multi story car park and an eyesore that used to be the Upper Reaches Hotel. It looks as if Abingdon is being left to go to rack and ruin.
Janet – the multi-storey and the Upper Reaches are both fair and square the responsibility of the District Council. No Council (or anyone else) accepts responsibility for the monk, but the Town Council did for a while voluntarily take on the task of mowing etc on the roundabout and I don’t think anyone would object if they took the initiative to remove the fallen monk.
Janet regularly shows herself to be a very ignorant individual whose constant moaning about Abingdon spoils this website. She might find more of an audience for her constant put downs about Abingdon on the Oxford Mail website.
Perhaps she would like to contact Tesco, Whitbread (operators of the Premier Inn), the Hilton Garden Inn, Asda (operator of the service station) or Mays Properties (owner of Fairacres) about sponsoring a display on the Nuffield Way roundabout instead of pestering the councils all the time. Then she can harangue the owners of the Bury Street Precinct about all of the missed opportunities with the multi storey car park and the Charter in general. Maybe even have a bit more luck with Contemporary Hotels who are letting the Upper Reaches rot, but I doubt it.
Days after it opens this junction will be responsible for jams and delays on the A34 which is a national trunk road and was always intended to be a by-pass.
The problem is too much traffic, not, not enough roads, it has never been possible to build our way out of congestion and this project has no chance of bucking that trend.
You’re not stuck in traffic, you are the traffic.
Tim,
i partly agree with you, but I look at it slightly differently. I think the changes will actually make traffic in Abingdon much worse. As soon as drivers realise that the Hinksey Hill interchange is jammed again, they’ll look for another route — and that’s when Lodge Hill will become the new cut-through.
To me, it still feels like a really bad idea. And yes, I do drive.
Tim, with reference to your comment “You’re not stuck in traffic, you are the traffic”, you need to read Daniels wonderful comment about this Trump like factoid, on this site, Sept 14th 2024.
Thank you Steve 2.
I have reminded my nan to stop her complaining about her hip replacement…can’t believe she’s moaning as she selfishly bungs up the NHS waiting lists; she IS the waiting list!
I read Daniels comment. Thank you it was quite amusing.
Aparently my argument is “purile” but comparing traffic queues to A&E queues is false equivalence, there’s no comparison. That’s purile. The same goes for Nans hip, they are completely different. Purile x 2.
There’s then some blather about relative wealth which I haven’t raised but is somehow my argument which is just daft.
Then we get onto taxes, which avoids the inconvenient truth that no amount of tax is going to resolve too many cars in too small an area. The problem isn’t financial, it’s physical.
Then he gets onto car production and suggests, presumably ironically, that we don’t celebrate MINI producing 1000 cars a day, which, as there is no shortage of cars might not be a bad idea. How about ‘One on the road, one off’?
Aparently vehicle journeys are “easy, convenient, efficient, comfortable, and stress free.”
I’m not sure what planet Daniel is actually on at this point. If that is true “far and away the vast majority of the time” what are you all complaining about?
No one is trying to get a genie back in the bottle, but if we can’t acurately identify the problem, we’re never goig to find an effective answer. That’s not a castigation of the people stuck in their own traffic, it’s just an accurate analysis of the situation.
Daniels suggestion of 10% Council Tax discount for car sharers is a nice idea but completely unworkable.
Criticisms of public transport are valid but how about public transport gets adequately funded? Or better yet, made free? That would be better than 10% discount or free parking for people who may or may not share a car.
I bless the naievitey of encouraging people to use their cars BETTER. That’s not what cars are for, to think otherwise goes against all the promotion, advertising and perception control. Have you ever wondered why there is no congestion in car adverts?
People don’t ‘dare’ to choose their car, they just pick it over the alternatives, and then they get stuck in traffic with all the other people who made the same choice.
As for 20mph limits? Thats an aspiration and maybe you’d like to spend some time thinking about why that is.
An unavoidable and inconvenient truth is that we have never been able to build our way out of congestion, we never have and we never will.