Botley Road (Non-Woo-Woo)

 

Today I have a non-woo-woo article for you, very rare for me! It's one of only about a dozen I've ever written. It concerns Botley Road in Oxford. Something I seriously suspect that many people in the city have forgotten ever existed. This major throughfare is the principle traffic connection between West Oxford and the rest of Oxford. Anybody who lives in North Hinksey, Dean Court, Chawley, Cumnor and Botley are cut off from the city by all motor transport. It has played havoc with the bus routes and a number of services that normally terminate at Gloucester Green are currently tucked into a row of overcrowded and unsheltered stops by Osney Island. For example, see here for my recent trip to Swindon: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2026/06/bases-2026-disclosure-conference.html. To drive to the city centre from West Oxford is possible, but only via a massive detour all the way north along the ring road or south Redbridge and to Donnington Bridge. This situation has been going on for so long I had totally forgotten how and when it started. I had to look it up; April 2023. The original plan was a joint endeavour by Network Rail and Oxon and Oxford City Council to expand the railway station, build a new railway bridge and lower the road level so double-decker buses could pass underneath it. This was estimated to take "just a few months!" It has now been over three years. The worksite has been a mysterious collection of hoarding, direction signs and weird tunnels and pathways that keep shifting, depending on what part of the place is being attended to at the time. Every time I pass by there I have to start anew finding the correct route through the chaos. The problem was that the project hit unexpected obstacles that caused massive delays. This does happen occasionally, for another example see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2013/12/mysterious-object-in-seattle-tunnel-dig.html. I regularly joke on HPANWO TV that they must have found a crashed flying saucer, but the reality is nothing so exciting. A series of water pipes had to be diverted along with sewers; these had to be kept separate to prevent contamination. There were also gas mains and electricity cables that "had not been mapped" which means nobody knows exactly where they were. That sounds strange. Were there no records? Surely the people who installed them originally could have told them. In some cases this happened a long time ago, over a century, but it is still odd to think that nobody knew where these utilities were despite the people of Oxford using them every day. No wonder it is perfectly plausible that strange creatures might live in them, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2016/10/monster-in-sewer.html. 

The contractor, with the inopportune name of "Keir" wasn't even sure if the cables were isolated and could therefore be removed safely. Strangely, the electricity company didn't know either. To work it out a number of controlled discharges were tried. All this work had to be negotiated with Thames Water and this took even more time and money. The excavation of the road was hampered by a "Victorian arch", a very old brick structure designed to protect the road from the water table. Again, there was no information available about how big this construction was and how it could be removed. The deeper dip will also require special drainage. But even the darkest night ends with the dawn and now it has been announced that Botley Road will reopen at the end of next month. It will be improved too, apparently; with proper cycle tracks and even, eventually, an extra platform at the station. The cost of the original operation was said to be £161 million but have risen to £237 million, all funded by the Department of Transport... which means we, the taxpayers. Source: https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/26251483.update-network-rail-botley-road-will-reopen/. I'm glad this huge construction venture will soon be at an end. Buses can once more travel to the city centre and people can drive to and from West Oxford. This saga is testimony to the old saying: to err is human, but to screw things up completely requires a committee.