A significant upgrade will be carried out for £35m A40 scheme to lower traffic, boost local bus services and allow the development of thousands modern houses in Oxfordshire. The £35m A40 scheme will lead to an 850-space park and ride facility including a cycle parking and electric car chargepoints, constructed to the north-west of Eynsham, as the Department for Transport (DfT) moves ahead with plans to grow back greener from the coronavirus pandemic. Balfour Beatty is lined-up as project’s main contractor.
Two modern bus lanes will also be built along the carriageway, moving bus users eastbound from the new area to just before the Dukes Cut and westbound near Cassington, helping much to improve bus journey times. The works revealed will form the first part of the larger £156m A40 transport package, which anticipates to offer additional highway area and improve transport connections while encouraging a shift to a much sustainable forms of travel.
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A40 scheme in Oxfordshire to offer greater accessibility
The project is going to offer access to more than 4,800 new homes in the region and a important boost to the local economy. Currently, the A40 is one of the last remaining main highway through Oxford without a park and ride service. The government stated that the £35m A40 scheme will help to cut congestion by encouraging local drivers to stop using their cars for their whole journey and choosing more sustainable means of transport, like local bus services while travelling in the region.
Proposed works will also lead to the creation of a three-metre-wide designed path for cyclists and pedestrians along the A40 between Witney and Oxford, replacing the former narrower path. This will comprise of a safe, signal-controlled crossings for pedestrians and cyclists at different junctions, making greener means of travel more reliable to people in the area. Main works will get underway in 2022 and complete by mid-2024.
