BRIDGWATER will become “the premier town in Somerset” once three sets of lengthy roadworks have been completed, a councillor has stated.

Bridgwater is currently the site of three major sets of roadworks: the delivery of the Celebration Mile in the town centre, the £10.7m upgrade to the Dunball roundabout near junction 23 of the M5, and improvements linked to delivering the Agratas gigafactory within the nearby Gravity enterprise zone.

Each of these major infrastructure projects needs to be delivered within a very limited time-frame, with both the Celebration Mile and the Dunball upgrade having strict deadlines on how central government funding (from the towns fund and the levelling up fund respectively) can be spent.

Councillor Richard Wilkins, portfolio holder for transport and waste services, has asked for motorists to have “a little bit of patience” over the coming months, promising that “everybody’s going to benefit” once the work is finished.

Work to supply the site of the planned Agratas electric car battery facility (which will create up to 4,000 new jobs) has been ongoing since September.

A one-way system is currently in place on the A39 Puriton Hill, meaning traffic coming from Glastonbury and Street is unable to directly access junction 23 – instead being diverted into the town centre and back along the A38 Bristol Road.

These restrictions will be lifted between December 19 and January 10, 2025 to give residents and businesses some respite over the Christmas period – just as the council’s upgrade to Hurdle Way in Taunton will also be paused for two weeks.

The one-way system will then be reintroduced on Puriton Hill from January 11 to February 9, with a further set of roadworks expected in the same area early in the spring (though the precise dates have not been confirmed).

Work on the Dunball ‘throughabout’ commenced on November 11, with temporary traffic lights and lane closures being in effect for the remainder of 2024.

Three sets of overnight closures (between 7.30pm and 5am) will be required in early-2025 on the A39 between the roundabout and junction 23, with the council confirming in late-October that these will be in place from January 6 to 10, February 10 to 14 and March 3 to 14.

During these times, motorists can still use junction 23 to leave the M5 but will be diverted along Puriton Hill eastbound towards Knowle and enter the town via the A39 Bath Road and the Cross Rifles roundabout.

These three sets of closures are being spread out to accommodate the Agratas roadworks – with the council having very little margin for error if any scheme overruns due to inclement weather, supply chain issues or other disruption.

Work on the Eastover section of the Celebration Mile (which includes East Quay, New Road and part of Salmon Parade) officially begin in early-August, with this section expected to be completed in the summer of 2025.

Work began on the Angel Crescent section on November 4, with parking and access restrictions being put in place, while the improvements to Clare Street are expected to get under way early in the new year.

Mr Wilkins (who represents the Curry Rivel and Langport division on the council) spoke to the Local Democracy Reporting Service about the schemes at a public drop-in event held at Bridgwater Town Hall on Wednesday, November 20.

He said: “Ideally we wouldn’t do all this at the same time, but because of financial reasons, it all has to happen at the same time, which makes it really difficult – and we just ask for a little bit of patience on the roads.

“It genuinely isn’t going to be easy, but we’re very confident that we can mitigate any problems as much as we can – and the end result is going to be fantastic.

“The investment into Bridgwater is huge and it’s going to make it the premier town in Somerset.”

Bridgwater’s road network experiences significant additional congestion when the M5 is closed – with motorists facing hours of delays when the motorway between Bridgwater and Taunton was closed following the death of Wellington teenager Tamzin Hall on November 11.

Mr Wilkins said that it was impossible to prevent all congestion caused by such incidents, but the upgrades (especially around the Dunball area) would help traffic to flow through the town more smoothly.

He said: “Obviously, any incident on the M5 is tragic, but it does cause a huge amount of problems on our road network, especially in and around Bridgwater.

“I can’t guarantee that there aren’t going to be problems moving into the future, but what this will do is it will make the traffic flow better in this part of Bridgwater.

“We’ve done a similar scheme in Yeovil and that has proved to be very successful – it’s prevented a backlog of traffic up to the A303 on the A3088 link road.”

The council held a previous drop-in event about these three sets of roadworks at Puriton Village Hall in late-October, before work on the Dunball site formally got under way.

Mr Wilkins said that local feedback had been largely positive, and that any criticism or suggestions would be taken on board as the different schemes roll forward.

He said: “People are interested on how it will impact them. They’ve taken on board everything that we’ve attempted to do to alleviate matters.

“We’ve listened to residents that might have a particular interest in a blocked lane or whatever, and we’ve taken that on board and listened very carefully.

“Actually the feedback’s been very positive in in general. People understand that the investment’s going in, they understand that it’s going to be difficult, but they also understand that come the end of it, everybody’s going to benefit.”

For more information on these roadworks and others, visit www.somerset.gov.uk/roads-travel-and-parking/roadworks-and-travel.