DIVERSIONS will be in place in Reading town centre to allow work to take place at a busy through route.
The area around St Mary’s Butts and Broad Street, known as Target junction, will be closed to traffic from Monday, July 24, through to Monday, August 7.
The two-week shutdown means disruption for Reading Buses and affects all routes that run through St Mary’s Butts and Cheapside.
The work is to allow for repairs to the deteriorating northern side of the junction and replacement of the granite kerb around the whole junction.
Reading Borough Council says the current condition of the area has been presenting an increasing risk to all road users, particularly cyclists and motorcyclists, which is a priority to resolve.
It has timed works to take place during school holidays, and take advantage of lower traffic levels.
And the council will also resurface two sections of St Mary’s Butts and a section of Oxford Road.
The works have been timed to take place in the school holidays when traffic levels are lower. Signed diversions will be in place for buses and other traffic.
Reading Buses will be rerouting bus stops for the following routes: Jet Black 1, Lime 2, Leopard 3, Lion 4/X4. Emerald 5/6/6a, Route 9, Ruby 10, Bronze 11, Sky Blue 15/15a/16, Purple 17, Little Oranges 19a/b/c, Claret 21, Yellow 26, Royal Blue 33, Buzz 42, Greenwave 50, and Mereoak Park and Ride 600.
There are different diversions depending on whether the buses are heading towards Reading or going from Reading.
This is the second time in 18 months the area has been closed for works – in February, the Target junction was closed for a week to allow for the relaying of granite cobblestones and kerbs on the other side.
In this case, a specialist high-performance bedding mortar and a specialist jointing compound was used aimed at reducing the length of the work.
Cllr Karen Rowland, lead councillor for environmental services and community safety at Reading Borough Council, said: “We recognise that repairs on the junction will cause disruption, but this is unavoidable as the section in question has become an increased risk for cyclists and motorbikes and needs to be repaired.
“We are however ensuring that we are maximising work in these closure times, using a joined-up approach to additionally resurface parts of Oxford Road and St Mary’s Butts in parallel”.
Opposition parties wanted the inconvenience to be reduced as much as possible.
Councillor Rob White (Green Party, leader of the main opposition party on Reading Council) said: “As works to this junction were last carried out in February 2022 I hope that this junction isn’t closed for too long and that disruption is kept to a minimum.”
And Cllr James Moore, leader of Reading’s Liberal Democrats, wanted to know why the whole junction wasn’t tackled last year.
“This closure only just over a year after the last ‘full repair’ is confusing – if Labour’s Ckkr Page said it was a full repair last time – what is it this time?
“We would like to see comprehensive works carried out so this important junction doesn’t have to carry on closing – the Council should ensure that all works carried out at the ratepayer’s expense are to the highest quality to money in already short supply doesn’t have to be forked out again.”
Reading Conservatives were invited to comment.
All changes are detailed on Reading Buses website, https://www.reading-buses.co.uk/closure-st-marys-butts-reading
