A34 - a road to avoid for 9 weeks

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Sun 21 Jan 2007 10:26
A34 - a road to avoid for 9 weeks - local yokel
Got stuck on the A34 southbound approaching the Whitchurch roadworks on Friday evg around 1930. Five car accident plus the single-lane delayed me for 90 minutes. The Chilton roadworks are also bad at peak hours with 30 mins being common.

Both sets of work are due to last another nine weeks.
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Sun 21 Jan 2007 14:10
A34 - a road to avoid for 9 weeks - turbo11
A colleague was stuck for over an hour in the 10 mile tailbacks last monday when they started.Shame they are not doing the work at night like they did with the stretch up by the M40.
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Mon 22 Jan 2007 10:47
A34 - a road to avoid for 9 weeks - Brian Tryzers
Hmmm...how's the Chilton set in the morning? I have a 10am meeting in Basingstoke on Wednesday, which probably isn't the cleverest time to be going that way but it didn't slow me down too badly in the afternoon last week.
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Mon 22 Jan 2007 12:32
A34 - a road to avoid for 9 weeks - local yokel
www.bbc.co.uk/travelnews/local/oxford.shtml will give you info, but I'd allow an extra 30 mins. i think my experience on Fri evg was exceptional.
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Mon 22 Jan 2007 14:37
A34 - a road to avoid for 9 weeks - Brian Tryzers
Thx LY. As an alumnus of Chilton County Primary School, I could always take a scenic detour for a look at the ol' place - but I'll settle for getting to my meeting on time.
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Mon 22 Jan 2007 15:24
A34 - a road to avoid for 9 weeks - local yokel
If it sounds totally fouled up you could, at a pinch, leave the A34 at Milton/Didcot, then take the A417 though Upton, Harwell, Blewbury and to Streatley, and then Pangbourne and pick up the M4 at Theale, up one junction to the A33 and then to Basingstoke.
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Tue 23 Jan 2007 13:02
A34 - a road to avoid for 9 weeks - The Gingerous One
Hmmmm yet again then. I am glad I moved from Basingstoke upto Lancashire.

The A34 was the bane of my life for the 5 years I was in Basingstoke, queues, queues and more queues whenever I wanted to get anywhere.

The few times that I've been down that way since and had to come back up in rush hour its' been horrid and next time I sharn't bother with the A34 but chop cross-country to avoid all the pain and the rolling 5 mile tailback upto the M40.
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Tue 23 Jan 2007 17:43
A34 - a road to avoid for 9 weeks - Brian Tryzers
I can sympathize - I worked in Bas from 1989 to 1995, so the A34 was my escape route at weekends. That section between Oxford and the M40 is about my least-favourite stretch of road anywhere. Horrible surface too, so these days I just put myself in Calm mode and trundle along at HGV speed rather than join the queue of dodgems in the right-hand lane. Think of me tomorrow morning!
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