FEARS that Swindon will come to a standstill if work at Bruce Street Bridges is not completed ahead of the closure of Stratton Green Bridge next month have been raised by residents and councillors.

Work on the improvements at the Bruce Street Bridges is expected to last until March of next year, despite Swindon Borough Council hoping to have the project completed this year.

At the North Central Locality Meeting earlier this week a number of residents spoke up over the works around the Bruce Street Bridges, calling for assurances that Swindon would not be gridlocked once Network Rail begins work on Monday, November 9.

The rail infrastructure organisation is due to close the bridge over the railway at Stratton Green from Monday, November 9 for four months in order to raise the bridge to accommodate the new electric trains.

Councillor Jim Robbins said residents feared the overrunning work at Bruce Street would see two of the town’s limited railway crossing points out of action, resulting in gridlock. He said: “The feeling we are getting from residents living near Bruce Street is that the work isn’t starting to wind down. As I understand it there is still quite a lot of major work to take place around Kemble Drive that was due to start in the summer but hasn’t yet.

“One of the major issues in the town is a lack of roads crossing the railway. We want to know that there is some contingency plans in place for how the council is going to deal with the issue.

“To be fair to Network Rail they were told work at Bruce Street Bridges would be finished by November so they planned their work to begin after it had finished. But now it is not finished on time we are going to have two of the railway crossings out of action.”

But the council’s cabinet member for sustainability and transport Dale Heenan said that traffic would be flowing more freely around Bruce Street Bridges as work was progressing well.

He said: “It is a real shame an opposition councillor is trying to stir and create public confusion on serious transport issues affecting the town.

“Newcome Drive will be open to traffic from the westbound side of Great Western Way as soon as the weather allows for the road markings to be painted. Great Western Way will also then be opened to two lanes between North Star and Bruce Street Bridges.

“The programme of works is progressing all the time, despite the significant delays incurred from unchartered pipes and cables, and we are hopeful that the traffic flow at the new junction will have improved even further by the time the Network Rail work at Greenbridge begins in a month’s time.”