East West Rail has asked the Highways team at Oxfordshire County Council for permission to take HGVs through the village as part of their ongoing reinstatement works currently being undertaken at the A2 compound by Grange Farm.
They are required to carry out this programme of final material movements as part of the Transport and Works Act Order. It will mean a number of HGV journeys between the A2 compound on Station Road and the final position adjacent to the A1 compound.
As some of the railway track has now been laid, there is no option to use the ‘haul road’ but this is expected to be the last of the series of HGV movements to this location as the work should be fully complete.
To have the least amount of impact on the village and the roads, they would like to carry out the initial HGV movements through Launton during the half term period to get these movements carried out as quick as possible.
The works will be carried out in two phases:
Phase 1 is the majority of the effort and will be from Monday 24 October to Friday 28 October.
Phase 2 will commence from Monday 7 November to Friday 18 November and will be for any residual topsoil not required to complete the site. Any journeys required in this time slot are likely to be minimal and they will be scheduled for outside school drop off/pick up times.
During these HGV movements, the EWR Team will install traffic ambassadors at the crossroads at Bicester Road and Station Road to monitor driver behaviour. Please note that they will also have a fulltime sweeper to mitigate mud on the road as best as they can while these HGV movements are carried out.
All the drivers will follow the route shown on the map below and the blue line outlines the route that will be taken by our HGVs. They will continue to remind all of the drivers to follow the agreed route, adhere to the required speed limit and always show courtesy to other road users.
As usual, any questions or concerns should go to publicinformation@ewralliance.co.uk or call the 24 hour helpline on 03457 11 41 41
HGV movements map