M4 tunnel plans go on display

Plans for a £26m tunnel scheme under the M4 at Wichelstowe been made public. The highways scheme would unlock 12.5 hectares of land for business use, creating around 2,000 new jobs.

The scheme would also provide access to land for 4,500 new homes.

Earlier this month the Department for Transport (DfT) allocated £22.9m in funding towards the scheme via Swindon and Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership, with Swindon Borough Council contributing an additional £3m.

A requirement of the planning permission for the wider Wichelstowe site, the access route will cross the M4 to the east of Junction 16 and will form part of the eventual connection between Hay Lane and Wharf Road, Redposts Drive to the north and Croft Road to the east.

The scheme will also include facilities for cycling and walking through the new link providing a route across the M4.

Alun Griffiths Construction Ltd has been contracted to complete the detailed design and construction of the scheme. Work is expected to be finished in the spring of 2021.

Councillor Gary Sumner, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning, said: “Our plans for delivering thousands of homes and jobs at Wichelstowe hinge on us creating this vital access road and I am delighted we have secured significant DfT funding to get the scheme underway.

“This will be a complex project and a real feat of engineering to effectively move the M4 motorway, allowing us to put our new road underneath the existing carriageway. And our contractor will do this by keeping all motorway lanes open, utilising a temporary speed limit.”

The plans will be on display at The Deanery Academy in Wichelstowe on Tuesday, 22 October between 3pm and 7pm.