Oxford Corridor Phase 2 & Platform 5 updates

[Edvid]

Work to connect the new Thames Water main starts tomorrow.

Oxfordshire Connect newsletter (15 November update)

On Monday (18 November) Thames Water are due to start work to complete the connection of the new water main on the western side of the bridge. This follows on from the ground investigation work during October to identify a suitable location.

The first phase of work will be taking place at the entrance to the bus turning area, opposite the Mill Street junction by The One restaurant (see diagram below.) This is planned to continue until 30 November.
[...]
Phase 2 of the work will see the road closed between Abbey Road and Mill Street, with all traffic being diverted via Abbey Road. This is planned to start on 1 December.

Work will be paused over the Christmas period, between 20 December and 6 January. During this time parking restrictions will be removed.

 

[Nicholas43]

Has any forum member tried out GWR's offer that, given notice, you can be let out, or in, through the gate from platform 4 to Roger Dudman Way?

 

[rocrat]

Has any forum member tried out GWR's offer that, given notice, you can be let out or in through the gate from platform 4 to Roger Dudman Way?

This is often left open anyway at the moment! Does/can one call GWR to specifically request this?

I had assumed it was just due to peak time overcrowding...

 

[hwl]

Work to connect the new Thames Water main starts tomorrow.

Any bets on delays if when TW go under?

 

[Nicholas43]

This is often left open anyway at the moment! Does/can one call GWR to specifically request this?

I had assumed it was just due to peak time overcrowding...

The Oxfordshire Connect newsletter says that:
Due to the work affecting access to the station entrance, in exceptional circumstances, and during dedicated times, GWR are providing passenger assistance from the west side of the station.

This is reachable via a signposted vehicular drop off/pick up point on Roger Dudman Way. Please allow a minimum of 30-40 minutes for passenger assistance from this side to enable staff to get you to your train on time. Operating times for this service will be 07:30 – 21:00 Monday to Friday, and 08:00 – 21:00 on Saturday and Sunday.

 

[duffield]

Any bets on delays if when TW go under?

Recent reports suggest they'll stagger on for at least a few more months, hopefully these works will be done in that time. Hopefully.

Link to relevant FT article, relevant quote follows:

Thames Water’s emergency loan could cost £800mn in interest and fees

Mooted £3bn loan will hit customers and drain troubled utility’s resources, warn experts

www.ft.com

Britain’s largest water utility, which is already struggling under a £19bn debt mountain, said on Wednesday that it had approval from a majority of its lenders to take out a new £3bn loan.

 

[hwl]

Recent reports suggest they'll stagger on for at least a few more months, hopefully these works will be done in that time. Hopefully.

Link to relevant FT article, relevant quote follows:

Thames Water’s emergency loan could cost £800mn in interest and fees

Mooted £3bn loan will hit customers and drain troubled utility’s resources, warn experts

www.ft.com

There is a pause in works at Christmas which provides the opportunity for a very delayed restart in the new year.
That loan is merely licking the can down the road for while.

Though as NR are paying them to do the work it might stay near the top of TW's priority list.

 

[brad465]

There is a pause in works at Christmas which provides the opportunity for a very delayed restart in the new year.
That loan is merely licking the can down the road for while.

Though as NR are paying them to do the work it might stay near the top of TW's priority list.

If they go under while these works are ongoing how quickly could whoever takes over resume them? Giving TW are providing a critical service, they'll have to be an emergency nationalisation/administrator deployment imminently.

 

[DavidGrain]

If they go under while these works are ongoing how quickly could whoever takes over resume them? Giving TW are providing a critical service, they'll have to be an emergency nationalisation/administrator deployment imminently.

Water supply and sewerage are essential activities which will need to be kept going. This work might not be regarded as essential.

 

[BrianW]

There is a pause in works at Christmas which provides the opportunity for a very delayed restart in the new year.
That loan is merely licking the can down the road for while.

Though as NR are paying them to do the work it might stay near the top of TW's priority list.

Why should National Rail, ie us, the taxpayer, the rail passenger (and freight customer/) be paying?

Is this not (another?) example of inadequate 'site investigation' and inordinate and unnecessary race to 'get started' after long-awaited approval to spend is received, rather as the GW Electrification project delays, redesigns and overspends which gave rise to Oxord electrification dither and delay, cutbacks, cancellation and reinstatement ...

 

[hwl]

Why should National Rail, ie us, the taxpayer, the rail passenger (and freight customer/) be paying?

Is this not (another?) example of inadequate 'site investigation' and inordinate and unnecessary race to 'get started' after long-awaited approval to spend is received, rather as the GW Electrification project delays, redesigns and overspends which gave rise to Oxord electrification dither and delay, cutbacks, cancellation and reinstatement ...

The council didn't want the road closures to do pre-investigation work...
The council's records of what was underneath the road were also inaccurate.

NR will ultimately being paying for all the TW work.

 

[zwk500]

The council didn't want the road closures to do pre-investigation work...
The council's records of what was underneath the road were also inaccurate.

NR will ultimately being paying for all the TW work.

Will NR have recourse to the council for inaccurate information extending the works?

 

[Doctor Fegg]

The council's records of what was underneath the road were also inaccurate.

I think "incomplete" would be a more appropriate word than "inaccurate", given that no one knew about the extent of an arch that was put in some 200 years ago.

I'm not sure that the railway infrastructure owner is in a great place to criticise local councils for incomplete documentation of what lies underground given their own travails during the Great Western electrification ("whoops, we appear to have piled through some signalling cables, wonder who put them there").

 

[Nicholas43]

Will NR have recourse to the council for inaccurate information extending the works?

There is, or was, a National Underground Asset Register project. Meanwhile, utilities are supposed to have their own records. I don't think we can blame the highway authority.

 

[BrianW]

Who is the 'Employer' in contract terms; and who the 'contract administrator' in terms that were in use 'back in the day'? Some body is responsible. Some body must pay. One near certainty is that so much is 'at stake' that (expensive) legal departments will be commissioning (expensive) legal representatives to 'defend' their client and to lay blame at some other body's door. Were the risks that this would occur suitably assessed and provision made via insurances, indemnities and legally enforceable 'get out clauses' etc.

I am wondering whether, with the benefit of hindsight (!) Platform 4 could have been moved northward so that a Platform 5 could have been be served from a Down line junction staring beyond Botley Road, leaving the bridge and road 'intact'?

 

[JamesT]

I am wondering whether, with the benefit of hindsight (!) Platform 4 could have been moved northward so that a Platform 5 could have been be served from a Down line junction staring beyond Botley Road, leaving the bridge and road 'intact'?

That would have been extremely short-sighted. The clearance under the current bridge is very poor, necessitating shorter than usual double-decker buses to be able to use it. There is also a future aspiration that Platform 2 may become through instead of a bay if the main station building is rebuilt, the bridge has been designed with this in mind for the future.

 

[InTheEastMids]

This seems like a relative

The council didn't want the road closures to do pre-investigation work...
The council's records of what was underneath the road were also inaccurate.

In a nutshell, this is a reason behind delays and cost increases for all sorts of infrastructure projects. For various different reasons, contractors are appointed and things kick off with too many unknowns. Then something unforeseen is discovered and the redesigns, compensation events/variations and delays start mounting up. This observation is basically a standard feature of any report that tries to answer the question of why infrastructure projects cost so much.

There is, or was, a National Underground Asset Register project

This is quite a recent development, and probably will only cover "known knowns", so isn't going to help when there was something down there that nobody knew anything about.

 

[DavidGrain]

Will NR have recourse to the council for inaccurate information extending the works?

Unlikely. There is no evidence that the council misled or were negligent in the information that they gave to NR.

 

[BlueLeanie]

There is, or was, a National Underground Asset Register project. Meanwhile, utilities are supposed to have their own records. I don't think we can blame the highway authority.

If the pipes were originally installed by Berkshire, Oxfordshire or Oxford Municipal Councils in the 19th century, then then the finger points that way.

Or perhaps a canal channel, maybe a lade for industry, looking at old maps there was a University power station down that way, a gas works, metal castings factory. Brunel himself might have designed the arch!

 

[12LDA28C]

Who is the 'Employer' in contract terms; and who the 'contract administrator' in terms that were in use 'back in the day'? Some body is responsible. Some body must pay. One near certainty is that so much is 'at stake' that (expensive) legal departments will be commissioning (expensive) legal representatives to 'defend' their client and to lay blame at some other body's door. Were the risks that this would occur suitably assessed and provision made via insurances, indemnities and legally enforceable 'get out clauses' etc.

I am wondering whether, with the benefit of hindsight (!) Platform 4 could have been moved northward so that a Platform 5 could have been be served from a Down line junction staring beyond Botley Road, leaving the bridge and road 'intact'?

This has already been covered in a previous post which suggested the same 'solution'. Moving or even just shortening Platform 4 at the south end is really a non-starter.

 

[BrianW]

This has already been covered in a previous post which suggested the same 'solution'. Moving or even just shortening Platform 4 at the south end is really a non-starter.

Thank you; 290 posts over a couple of years is some number to trawl back through!

 

[Oxfordblues]

A local councillor recently asked on a West Oxford Whatsapp group when exactly Botley Road would reopen to through traffic. (It is 6 miles from Binsey Lane to the station according to the AA Routeplanner.) I helpfully replied that installation of the new bridge requires a 7-day rail blockade for which the lead-time will be at least 18 months. So I suggested the project might be complete in mid- to late-2026. They were unsurprisingly horrified!

 

[The Planner]

A local councillor recently asked on a West Oxford Whatsapp group when exactly Botley Road would reopen to through traffic. (It is 6 miles from Binsey Lane to the station according to the AA Routeplanner.) I helpfully replied that installation of the new bridge requires a 7-day rail blockade for which the lead-time will be at least 18 months. So I suggested the project might be complete in mid- to late-2026. They were unsurprisingly horrified!

Binsey Lane is odd place to choose.

 

[Oxfordblues]

Binsey Lane is odd place to choose.

We live on Oatlands Road but I didn't want to divulge that on a public forum (I have now!)

 

[BrianW]

Binsey Lane is odd place to choose.

It doesn't seem 'odd' to me. IIRC folk from Binsey Lane may well want or need, for whatever reason, to reach the Station or thereabouts by car and have now along journey 'round the houses' whether via Marston Ferry Road or Donnington Bridge Road or the Ring Road, each of which is a long way round!! It may be the place of maximum inconvenience, esp considering the traffic too!

 

[The Planner]

It doesn't seem 'odd' to me. IIRC folk from Binsey Lane may well want or need, for whatever reason, to reach the Station or thereabouts by car and have now along journey 'round the houses' whether via Marston Ferry Road or Donnington Bridge Road or the Ring Road, each of which is a long way round!! It may be the place of maximum inconvenience, esp considering the traffic too!

Its odd as there is nothing up there.

 

[Merioneth]

Its odd as there is nothing up there.

Apart from all the houses at the bottom end, Binsey itself, and the depot for the electric delivery bikes too.

 

[Nicholas43]

Its odd as there is nothing up there.

On the contrary, there is a noted treacle well. Link to picture of St Margaret's well, with inscription.
There are also now two marked disabled parking bays in Roger Dudman way, near the gate to platform 4, and a button to press to be ask for the gate to be opened. This suggests to me that GWR are in for the duration, and expect that to be measured in years not months.

 

[NickBucks]

Is the water main the last utility to be moved and if so what is the plan going forward ? Is anyone on this forum with insider knowledge able to give a time frame, give or take say three months, when Botley Road might re-open, the new bridge installed and traffic around Oxford can get back to normal ? I assume the City / County Council would be looking for the planning / preparation period (18 months ?) to be a time when Botley Road can be re-opened with only a short term closure for the actual bridge to be put in place.

 

[BrianW]

Apart from all the houses at the bottom end, Binsey itself, and the depot for the electric delivery bikes too.

Street View · Google Maps

Explore a place in a more immersive way in Google Maps.

www.google.com

and has The Perch closed?

Is the water main the last utility to be moved and if so what is the plan going forward ? Is anyone on this forum with insider knowledge able to give a time frame, give or take say three months, when Botley Road might re-open, the new bridge installed and traffic around Oxford can get back to normal ? I assume the City / County Council would be looking for the planning / preparation period (18 months ?) to be a time when Botley Road can be re-opened with only a short term closure for the actual bridge to be put in place.

This bridge was sadly, and perhaps predictably, a bridge too far.