Council welcomes re-opening of Boundary Road
Road reopens following year-long bridge replacement project
(News release West Berkshire Council:) Newbury, 1 February 2017 - The bridge on Boundary Road has been officially re-opened this week. The bridge over the railway has been reconstructed as part of Network Rail's Great Western Electrification programme to enable overhead power lines to be installed to power a new fleet of electric trains.
West Berkshire Council would like to thank residents for their patience at what has been a long period of disruption during the works by Network Rail.
Jeanette Clifford, West Berkshire Council's Executive Member for Highways and Transport said: ‘It's great to see the new Boundary Road Bridge opened - and it's a welcome reminder that the benefits of electrification are coming ever closer. We're particularly pleased that because of the council's relatively small contribution of £250,000 to the project, the new bridge has two lanes, unlike the old narrow bridge it replaced which only had one. By partnering with Network Rail in this way, West Berkshire has a better bridge at a really good price - and once the work at the adjacent Sterling Cables site is finished in the next two years, it will make a real difference to traffic in the area. Congratulations are due to Network Rail for completing this very complex project on a difficult site, but even more importantly, our sincere thanks are due to local residents who have shown enormous forbearance over many months.’
Robbie Burns, Network Rail's regional director of infrastructure projects, said: ‘The construction of this new bridge at Boundary Road, as part of our Railway Upgrade Plan, is another important step towards the new fleet of bigger, faster and greener electric trains coming to Newbury. We would like to thank residents and motorists for their patience as we completed this essential work.’
The work started in January 2016 and has been completed on target. West Berkshire Council invested around £250,000 into the scheme to make the bridge two lanes. Once completed this will improve traffic through the area and by taking advantage of this existing projects it has cost the taxpayer substantially less than it would to have completed the work at another time.
When the bridge opens it will be one way but traffic light controlled. This is until land to the north of the bridge is developed by Amirantes as part of the Sterling Cables development. The road will be widened as part of this and project and is scheduled for completion early 2019.
A new footbridge has also been installed and the old one has now been removed.