Botley Road: Designs for major city centre route agreed

Plans put forward by the council include design features of the new bridge

The designs for part of a major road into a city centre have been agreed, a year after it was closed to traffic.

Oxfordshire County Council has opened a public consultation into the plans for the Network Rail development on the Botley Road in Oxford.

The proposals are part of ongoing work to provide a new western entrance to the city station for passengers and to replace the existing rail bridge.

The route will remain closed at the rail bridge until October 2024.

Plans put forward by the council include design features of the new bridge, shared use footway and cycleway proposals, as well as a raised toucan crossing and speed table.

Botley Road will remain closed until October 2024

As part of the new bridge, two 4m wide tunnels under the rail tracks would be provided, one on each side of Botley Road.

A county council spokesman said: "The overall outcome of the changes to infrastructure is expected to make walking and cycling along Botley Road to and from the city centre and the rail station - including the new western entrance - safer and more attractive."

The public consultation will end on 26 April, with a report then being presented to the council highways chief at a meeting in May.

A planned six-month break to the £161m project was cancelled in September, after Network Rail said it had faced "unique challenges" with the work.

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