Pewsey Road Bridge Roadworks, an end is in sight

There is an end in sight for the Pewsey Road Bridge roadworks and the resulting disruption to Marlborough.

Last night’s full Marlborough Town Council meeting heard that Councillor Rich Pitts and Marlborough’s newest town councillor Martin Houlden met with Helen Powdrill of Wiltshire Council on Friday to discuss the latest plans for the reopening of the Pewsey Road Bridge. They were able to give more details as to how the bridge will be reopened for Christmas from December 7th.

The bridge will be reopened to one way traffic travelling in a Pewsey to High Street direction from December 7th and it will remain open in this way until the end of February. Pewsey Road Bridge will then close completely for roughly the duration of the month of March to allow the re-trunking of utilities and telecoms, in particular the gas main that runs down the middle of the road.

While Wiltshire are unable to give an exact date, they would hope to be able to permanently re-open the bridge as early as possible in April, assuming that severe weather conditions or other potential disruptions over the coming months don’t slow the work down.

Wiltshire Council Cabinet member Dick Tonge, with responsibility for highways, said "The bridge has to be replaced due to weakening of the structure over the years. There is never a good time to do this work but we hope that the opening in the run up to Christmas will improve access and encourage shopping in the town."

Meanwhile the bridge currently remains completely open until 9am on Monday (October 18th) to allow traffic to pass through Marlborough when the High Street is closed off for Big Mop at the weekend.