The Chilton Interchange

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In January 2014 Oxfordshire CC announced a consultation for a new Chilton interchange Link. The Government were putting up £10 million towards it and the rest met from OCC. The interchange is badly needed for the Harwell science complex as there is no exit from the south bound side or entry on the northbound side of the old interchange. As I work on the Harwell complex I thought it would be a good idea to document the progress of the build when it happens. Somehow I really do not think there will be a lot of opposition to this as it is badly needed and should relieve the traffic problems down the road at Rowstock.

The first thing was to document the roads as they looked at the time.



I also tried to work out where the new off on and off slip roads would be looking from the road bridge on the A4185.



Next was recording the area where the work was going to be done showing where the Southbound slip road would be.




Along with the Northbound




There were also going to be two new roundabouts The Northbound one being here.



And the southbound one being round here.



It was my intention to follow the progress of the work as work was due to start in 2014 but nothing happened because there had been a delay because of a local council (Chilton) objecting and saying the money could be better spent. Someone must have had a word and told them the error of their ways because the objection was withdrawn thus saving thousands of pounds more being wasted on a public enquiry.



Some work happened in December then nothing until I saw in the paper work was commencing in 2015. In the first week of April they started clearing some of the trees that are in the way, first the northbound side.



Then the Southbound side



Apart from some survey work little happened then on the 24th August I saw some guys from the contractors checking out the area then a couple of days later all this appeared.



With a small digger doing some work and the fencing going up



Next the big boys came along with their toys and things started happening on site,
Not only that side but the south bound one had movement on it as well.




For the moment most of the work was on the north bound side.



By the end of September the site had changed with a lot of top soil being moved around and they were even working near the A34.



The south bound side had been cleared more and the whole area laid out.



By the time of my next visit in October things were changing with markers in place and a clear road laid out and there was even work going on near the bridleway.



Going round to the south ramp little looked to have changed though there was one excavator there.



The middle of October sees the building up of the roundabout under way with heavy rollers smoothing the soil out dump trucks were unloading and the excavator distributed it around.



A week later and the north side was deserted but you could see something happening on the south side.



Where lots of work was happening they were clearing the site near the A34 forming the roundabout near the Hagbourne Hill road the soil coming from further up the site. We were nearly into November so how would it change.



The beginning of November and you could see the roundabout for the north bound side getting higher with a lot of work going on, the whole area was changing.



Leaves had fallen on with a lot of work going on the south side roundabout and work digging out the ground level was going on, at the top of the site and also on the side
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I also found out the bridleway was in use that was how they moved the spoil from one side to the other and came out the other side.



There was also a lot of recycled material going in



What would I see next week?

The roundabout and road were getting higher on the North bound side of the A34 with huge pipes in evidence on the far side with work going on with the centre of the roundabout though nothing seem to be happening down by the bridleway.



Most of the work seems to be concentrating on the south side of the A34

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