THREE major new road projects costing £41m are due to begin in a few days’ time in Swindon with others still going, or over-running.

They are part of preparations for the 8,000-home New Eastern Villages expansion. Workers contracted by the borough council will begin on the Piccadilly roundabout in Covingham, the Oxford Road junction with Nythe Road and the Gablecross roundabout.

Work is expected to last until the summer on all three projects and although the town is currently in lockdown, there is still traffic moving around.

The council says the work is needed so the roads can cope with traffic from the new houses to be built on the eastern edge of the town heading to Swindon centre via the Piccadilly roundabout and Oxford Road, as well as traffic heading towards Oxford through the Gablecross junction.

The authority says it is important the work is done before the houses are built so the roads are ready for the increase in traffic and conditions of government funding for the schemes means work must begin now.

But many Adver readers feel work on other projects, such as widening Mead Way and replacing the roundabouts at the Moonrakers’ junction with lights should be finished before more projects are started.

The £4m Mead Way widening started last year and should have been finished in autumn, but a combination of lockdown and problems with drainage pipes means the road is still closed and the work will not be finished before spring this year.

Whitworth Road near the Moonrakers’ Junction was partially reopened in October but closed again after drivers continued to go the wrong direction.

It is due to be re-opened this month. Work continues on the £30m scheme to widen the White Hart roundabout, and build a new northbound on-ramp, again anticipating demand from the New Eastern Villages.

Responding to the news of the new projects starting Sian Glendenning wrote: “This is beyond stupid; we’ve got roads still closed that should have been completed months ago, roadworks left right and centre.”

Karen Baker thought there were other priorities: “It is not the junctions that need doing, it is the roads that need resurfacing. They could have been done last summer while the weather was nice. It is not good on anyone’s tyres and suspension.” Derek Goodfield said: “Not so much traffic - it makes sense.”

The council’s cabinet member for strategic infrastructure, transport and planning, Gary Sumner, is responsible for the New Eastern Villages programme.

He said the reason for staring work this month is to ensure government funding totalling more than £72m does not have to be returned: “Tens of millions of pounds will be spent upgrading Swindon’s strategic highway network over the next 12 months to ensure we have extra capacity on our roads in the years to come.

“We did fantastically well to get so much funding from the government to pay for these much-needed schemes and, although it will cause some inconvenience in the short-term, drivers should not experience significant delays over the coming months as traffic levels have dropped significantly due to the current Covid-19 restrictions.

"There will also be well-signed diversion routes in place during all the works.

“We appreciate some motorists will be frustrated with the amount of improvements being carried out in parallel, but this is due to funding conditions from the government, which insist on the money being spent within a certain timeframe.

“The new schemes at Nythe, Piccadilly roundabout and Gablecross junction are part of the wider New Eastern Villages infrastructure upgrades and will deliver high quality improvements well ahead of the new housing being built.

Each of the schemes will also include wildflower planting and landscaping and make the roads and junctions safer for residents while including smart traffic management along the A420/Oxford Road corridor.”