IN Brief:
- VolkerFitzpatrick has secured a key delivery package within Oxfordshire’s wider Didcot transport upgrade programme.
- The contract combines a new three-span bridge with highway remodelling and A4130 dualling.
- The bridge section sits inside a fully funded infrastructure scheme designed to unlock housing, employment land, and lower-congestion travel routes.
VolkerFitzpatrick has entered contract with Oxfordshire County Council to build the Didcot Science Bridge section of the Didcot and surrounding areas major infrastructure scheme, taking on one of the most structurally significant packages in the HIF1 programme. The award pushes the project out of design and enabling activity and into its main delivery phase, with construction expected to start this spring and continue for about two years.
The contract covers more than the bridge itself. It includes a new dual carriageway on the A4130 east of the A34 Milton Interchange and a new single carriageway bridge crossing the railway line and Milton Road. Under the current layout plan, the existing A4130 carriageway will become the eastbound route into Didcot, while newly built lanes to the south will carry westbound traffic back toward Milton Interchange.
The Science Bridge will be a three-span structure carrying the new link over the existing A4130, the Great Western main line, and Milton Road. From there, the road will continue through the former Didcot A Power Station land before reconnecting with the A4130 north of Purchas Road roundabout. In practical terms, that makes the package both a bridge job and a wider corridor reconfiguration exercise, with interfaces across rail, highways, drainage, utilities, and future development land.
The wider HIF1 scheme is intended to do more than add road capacity. Oxfordshire County Council says the full programme includes four highway sections, 19 km of walking and cycling routes, and 18 new bus stops, alongside measures intended to support enhanced bus services. The stated objectives are to reduce congestion, improve journey reliability, strengthen pedestrian and cycle links, and support new and existing employment sites as well as housing growth around Didcot.
Pre-construction activity is already under way. Site clearance, archaeological investigations, and utility diversions have started, and traffic management has been in place along the A4130 corridor to support vegetation clearance and site compound preparation for the bridge section. The council has also described the overall Didcot and surrounding areas programme as fully funded at £332m, giving this bridge package a clearer route into delivery than many comparable regional infrastructure schemes. Current traffic management and programme information is being published on the council’s project updates page.
