The Highways Agency is to close part of the A34 for essential bridge maintenance for two full weekends in November, along with two evenings in October. The detour it has put in place is to add 34 miles to journeys, effectively doubling their length.

The bridge works are taking place at College Farm Bridge and detours will be in place for traffic wishing to join the A34 or M4 at Chieveley. While it won’t be necessary to fully close the A34, drivers traveling to or from Oxford will need to add at least an hour to their travel time when weekend closures are in place. Details of the closures, taken from the Highways Agency website, are below.

The detour route put in place by the Highways Agency takes in motorways and so is unsuitable for restricted vehicles like mopeds, tractors or for learner drivers. An alternative detour for those vehicles will be provided. While there are shorter detour routes following minor roads in the area, many are unsuitable for a high volume of traffic or for larger vehicles such as HGVs.

Furthermore most of those routes pass through small towns and villages which would be disrupted by the increased traffic flow, which is why the Highways Agency has chosen the longwinded detour. The usual route for north and southbound traffic on the A34 is highlighted on the map below in green, with the detour highlighted and signposted by the Highways Agency marked in red.