While roadworks at the White Hart roundabout, A419 and A420 might be drawing to a close, motorists are still getting caught out by remaining closures. 

The road leading up to the busy Stratton junction was completely backed up from 8pm April 7 after both the A419 northbound from the A420 to the turnpike junction and the A420 between the White Hart and Gablecross roundabout and Gablecross roundabout itself underwent resurfacing work at the same time. 

Starting tonight, the newly opened slip-road onto the A419 was blocked up, with the stretch of road from that point closed from 7pm to 6am the following morning and then again on Friday into Saturday. 

Also starting tonight, lanes on the A420 and Gablecross roundabout have been closed overnight from 7pm until 6am with this closure lasting until April 29. 

The effect of this was felt by frustrating commuters who found themselves grinding to a halt grid-locking the roundabout in all directions, with reports on social media suggesting that many were stuck in a slow-crawl for nearly an hour. 

"We came from the Greenbridge roundabout side just after 8pm and we were stuck a little back from the White Hart pub. We didn’t move much at all for nearly an hour," one poor motorist said. 

"We managed to get far enough forwards to just turn back around the roundabout and go back into Swindon and towards Penhill Way to go back home to Faringdon. We have only just arrived home 5 mins ago!"

"I feel for those stuck in it now. Some people were getting annoyed and beeping their horns as one man purposely blocked the way to go right for some road workers lorry. I think tensions were high."

The roadworks at the White Hart junction, Gablecross junction and A419 are part of a larger body of works that have taken place in he east of Swindon to prepare the town for the upcoming New Eastern Villages expansion. 

These sections of road, as well as the Nythe Road/Oxford Road junction and Picadilly Roundbaout in Covingham, have been upgraded with extra lanes and wider roads to accomodate for the extra traffic expected from 8,000 new homes. 

Consequently, motorists have experienced inconvenience and delays for many months and while this latest example seems to be caused by the unfortunate combination of two short-term closures at the same time, it will do nothing to ease the minds of those who are running out of patience with the schemes.