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A329(M) motorway

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A329(M) shield
A329(M)
Route information
Maintained by Wokingham Borough Council
Length4 mi (6.4 km)
Existed1972–present
HistoryConstructed 1972–75
Major junctions
Southeast endBracknell
Major intersections
M4 motorway
Northwest endWinnersh
Location
CountryUnited Kingdom
Primary
destinations		Bracknell
Reading,
Road network
← A308(M)→ A404(M)

The A329(M) is a motorway in Berkshire, England. It is 4 miles (6.4 km) long and runs from the west of Bracknell to the north west of Winnersh. It is one of a small number of parts of the motorway system in England that are managed by the local highway authority, in this case Wokingham Borough Council, rather than National Highways.

Route

A329(M) motorway near Wokingham

From south to north, the route starts to the north of Bracknell and runs directly from the A329. It passes east of Wokingham in countryside. It then crosses the M4, continues north and meets the A3290 at Winnersh Triangle west of which see the status-downgraded A3290 road, to the junction with the A4. It is managed locally, by Wokingham Borough Council, rather than by National Highways.[1]

History

The first section of the road opened in 1973,[2] and went from the Winnersh junction to a temporary terminus at the A321.

A further section to the North/West of Winnersh — due to open at the same time — took the road up to the junction with the A4 to the east of Reading, running to the north of the railway line and dividing the Earley area of Reading almost in two. However the opening of this section was delayed due to the collapse of the Loddon Viaduct on 24 October 1972,[3] which killed three people and injured ten others.[4] This section subsequently opened in 1974.

The third and final section to be completed was the southern section of the motorway which was built to a standard dual two lane motorway specification (D2), and was opened in 1975. This extended the road to the 329 and B3408 junction at Amen Corner roundabout. The section of Berkshire Way (and the construction of the flyover) came some years later, allowing traffic to flow from Reading and the M4 past the official end of the motorway onto the Southern and Western industrial areas of Bracknell.

The large free-flow interchange between the A329(M) and the M4 was constructed as part of plans for an M31 motorway,[5] which was originally planned to extend down to the M3 (and possibly beyond) in the south.

In the early nineties, the section of the A329(M) that met the A4 east of Reading was downgraded to an A road to enable the hard shoulder to be used by a park-and-ride bus service. It was then renamed the A3290.[2] The Park and Ride bus service car park is subject to flooding and this causes frequent closures of the service.[6]

A feature of the A329(M) is its wide grass central reservation north of the M4. The cross-section of the motorway was built in this way to support future widening to dual-three lane standard, which was never introduced: the later southern section to Amen Corner lacks this provision. Because of this wide central reservation, the A329 (M) was formerly one of the only motorways in the United Kingdom to have no central barriers on some stretches.[7] However, as of 2010, almost the entire length of the road has had a central reservation barrier installed.

In 2006, on an area to the south of the A329(M) just beyond the actual designated motorway section, construction began on a new housing development—Jennett's Park. A new roundabout retaining an eastbound through lane was built on the A329 to provide access to this development.[8] It was finished in early 2011.[9]

In 2015, the A329(M) was reduced to a single lane each way through Junction 10 by Highways England.[10]

Death of construction workers

Main article: Loddon Bridge disaster

The formwork over its new River Loddon bridge should have supported the concrete while being poured but collapsed. Three men died and ten were injured in the wreckage. The Bragg report considered why this happened and made recommendations as to how formwork should be designed and tested, to make bridge construction safer.[11] Around 500 tons of concrete, with the steelwork and planking that should have supported it, dropped 40 feet (12 m) into the river. It was the eighth span of a total of 33 which make up the viaduct.[12]

Junctions

Note: motorway has no junction numbers

A329(M) motorway
Northbound exits Junction Southbound exits
Road continues as A3290 to Reading (East) A3290
Terminus 		Winnersh, Woodley (A329)
(M4) Wokingham, Bracknell A329(M)
Earley, Winnersh, Woodley (A329) Start of motorway
London M4(E)
South Wales, Newbury, Reading (Central, S & W) M4(W) 		M4 J10 South Wales, Newbury M4(W), London M4(E)
Start of motorway Terminus
A329 		Wokingham A329, Binfield B3408
(M4) Reading, Earley, Winnersh, Woodley A329(M)
Wokingham A329, Binfield B3408 		Road continues as A329 to Bracknell and Ascot

See also

References

  1. ^ "Roads". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Lords. 11 July 2007. col. WA231. Retrieved 9 January 2023.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ^ a b "A329(M)". Motorway Database. cbrd.co.uk. Retrieved 21 August 2010.
  3. ^ Bridle, Ron; Porter, John, eds. (2002). The Motorway Achievement: Frontiers of knowledge and practice. London: Thomas Telford. p. 352. ISBN 0-7277-3197-1. Retrieved 21 August 2010.
  4. ^ "Digging for dear life..." Wokingham Times. 26 October 1972. Retrieved 21 August 2010.
  5. ^ "M31". Pathetic Motorways. pathetic.org.uk. Archived from the original on 20 June 2010. Retrieved 28 June 2010.
  6. ^ "New park and ride for Reading in operation". BBC News. 26 October 2015. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
  7. ^ "A329(M)". Pathetic Motorways. pathetic.org.uk. Archived from the original on 20 June 2010. Retrieved 28 June 2010.
  8. ^ "A329 roundabout and link road to Peacock Lane". Jennett's Park Consortium. Archived from the original on 18 August 2010. Retrieved 24 August 2010.
  9. ^ "Lorry overturns on new Jennett's Park roundabout". getwokingham. 13 March 2011. Archived from the original on 28 March 2012. Retrieved 31 August 2011.
  10. ^ "Highways England". Highways England. Archived from the original on 21 November 2015. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  11. ^ Summerhayes, Stuart D (10 March 2010). "Section 1: Introduction". Design Risk Management Contribution to Health and Safety (PDF). Wiley. pp. 6, 13. ISBN 978-1-4051-3275-6. Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 May 2019.
  12. ^ Deacon, Malcolm; et al. (26 October 1972). "Digging for dear life..." Wokingham Times. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016.
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