COMMUTERS across Reading saw continued disruption this morning, with heavy rain and roadworks both contributing to delays and tailbacks on Thursday, November 3.
Works on the Reading West train station are currently impacting traffic on both Oxford Road and Tilehurst Road, which have both been reduced to just a single lane each.
There are also works on Bath Road, which is the only other main road which runs from East Reading to the centre of town, leading to disruption on all three main routes.
There are also works being carried out on Richfield Avenue, which forms an alternative, indirect route into Central Reading.
As well as a number of road and infrastructure works across Reading, recent heavy rain has seen considerable flooding on much of the roads, which causes further delays.
Reading Buses tweeted on Wednesday, November 2, that it was seeing delays of up to 40 minutes on range of routes, including routes 1, 2/2a, 14, 15, 16/16a, and 33.
It then tweeted on Thursday, November 3, that it was “currently experiencing delays across the network in the Reading area, all of which are due to roadworks.”
This was followed by a tweet that read “Roadworks affecting lime 2, royal blue 33 in both directions with delays of up to 30 mins.”
Works at the Tilehurst Road site of the Reading West station’s upgrade were originally set to conclude on Monday, November 14, but will be finished in January 2023 when the project finishes according to a spokesperson for Reading Borough Council.
In an extended statement, Reading Borough Council said: “The council will regularly receive notifications of works from statutory undertakers like gas, electric, water, and broadband companies who have powers by law to repair, maintain or upgrade their key infrastructure.
“The Council cannot prevent these works taking place and it is the ultimate responsibility of the statutory undertaker to ensure robust traffic management is in place, which takes into account every aspect of its work.”
It continues: “Unfortunately where they are emergency works they can coincide and cause disruption. One such example this week is the emergency SGN works on Bath Road at its junction with Berkeley Avenue which is the result of an emergency gas leak repair.
“SGN has informed us these should be completed today which will allow the right turn into and out of Berkeley Avenue to be reopened shortly.
“The Thames Water works nearby, along Bath Road, are to repair its water mains which are at risk of catastrophic failure and involve temporary traffic signals – these works are due to be completed by close of play on Friday [November 4].”
In the case of works to Reading West station, it said: “Works to transform Reading West station continue and involve the temporary closure of the Tilehurst Road entrance and footbridge across the railway.
“This means an alternative footway for pedestrians has been provided for passengers on Tilehurst Road by Great Western Railway, which also requires temporary traffic signals.
“These works are progressing well and are expected to finish in January, 2023.”
With regard to localised flooding in Caversham Park Road, the council said: “It is often the case after heavy rain that there is a delay in the time taken for water to drain away once the capacity of the gullies is reached.
“We will be assessing if there are any additional issues at the site in question, and will take remedial action if necessary.
“The Council carries out scheduled cleaning of all our 18,000 highway road gullies.”
Reading Buses said: “The major roadworks and recent flooding around Reading have been causing severe disruption to our services over the last few weeks, and we apologise for any inconvenience this has caused our customers.
“Our team have been working immensely hard to minimise the disruption, keep services running, and communicate delays or cancellations in very difficult circumstances that are outside of our control.
“We are also incredibly thankful to our driving team whose working pattern is significantly disrupted by this work, and continue to provide fantastic help to our customers.”
