I received a useful letter in the post today that is basically information from Sainsburys Heyford Hill that you may or may not find useful. It is essentially outlining the plans for an extension and refit of the shop and reconfiguration of the Heyford Hill Roundabout to which the shop is directly linked. Sainsburys has worked constructively with Oxfordshire County Council to develop a roundabout improvement scheme. The current outline of works is:
- Sun 6 Mar to mid-April 2011: Reconfigure and resurface car park
- Early April to mid-October: Highway works to upgrade Heyford Hill Roundabout
- Early May to Mid-June: Demolition and ground works for shop extension
- Mid-June to Mid-July: Shop extension construction
- Mid-July to Mid-October: Internal re-fit
- Mid-late October: Re-opening
Sainsburys anticipate a short closure of up to a week in the run up to the re-opening in October.
I suppose my main concern with this is that it will involve even MORE traffic lights. The ones on the Tesco Roundabout at Cowley, while of course extremely useful in the rush hour, are just an utter pain at other times and cause huge delays to everyone trying to navigate the roundabout. I just hope the traffic lights here will be a bit better thought-out.
Hi Tony
My main concern is that the congestion seen at peak times around this roundabout is caused not by that roundabout but by the poor access to the A34 and the traffic lights at the Abingdon road roundabout. What the southern bypass needs is a dedicated bypass lane past the Abingdon road roundabout for the majority of traffic which is not going into town, and a dedicated southern and northern access lane onto the a34. Non of this should be hard as it is only the minority who use the road to Boars hill and town when compared with those who want to get onto the A34 north or south bound.
I am worried that until these facts are addressed Oxford will continue to see high congestion around this area at peak times.
I asked the Oxford council if this was being planned but it would appear not.
Regards
Robert
It’s great that we’re to have yet more traffic lights on the roundabouts in Oxford. Of course, the more street furniture and regulatory equipment put on the highways, the more that has to be spent on maintaining them.
My friend showed me your blog and I lkie it for real!
I agree with Tony. The congestion is caused by people not being able to access the A34 on a dedicated slip road. There is ample space to introduce a dedicated road/slip at both Boarshill and Abingdon round abouts. Why don’t they do it. It would be greener as cars are not sitting there for ages blowing fumes into the atmosphere and it would save people so much time. No matter what improvements are made to Heyford Hill the traffic will always be there. I hear thaty Sainsbury’s paid for the works. Maybe it is there soley to aid shoppers to leave the car park and not to ease congestion on the bypass
I don’t think this roundabout is really to blame for the congestion in the area during peak times, so “improving” it probably won’t help at all. Put a dedicated “left” lane on the abingdon road roundabout, and another dedicated lane onto the A34 southbound, that should speed things up.
The noise being caused is intollorable, jack hammers into the small hours is NOT acceptable, and it has been disrupting everyones sleep for far too long.
I hope that when the new roundabout is totaly finished and it makes no real difirence at peak rush hour we will get a FULL appology from Sainsburys!
As someone who USED to shop at Sainsburys this mess has put me off shopping there for life! I would rather drive to Tesco in Abingdon.
And as for the temporary zebra crossing, its a joke, and seriously unsafe. When crossing towards the store the angle that it crosses the road means you cannot see ANY vehicles approaching you from the left, if they either do not see you or just dont stop you cannot see them so how can you possibly see them and jump/run out of their way? It is not acceptable to put peoples lives at risk like this.
So far every journey I have made through this forest of lights has taken longer than it would have done on the old system.
Why even more traffic lights? Is there anything more frustrating than sitting watching an empty roundabout, only for all the lights to change and hold up the only car coming the other way?
If getting onto the roundabout was such a problem for some people they should have just built a decent slip road from the far corner of the car park onto the Southern Bypass.
Sainsbury’s has lost me as a customer for inflicting this upon us.
I’m sure they will miss you (!) – don’t forget to complain at customer services!
I’m sure they won’t John 🙂
Maybe they have a traffic light on roundabout fetish like OCC seem to have! Makes you wonder how much a maintenance contract on traffic lights costs and how much influence they have on road planning.