South East Aylesbury Link Road latest

Happy New Year!
We hope that you all had an enjoyable Christmas and New Year. As per the last bulletin and the video above, the Christmas period was anything but restful for a large part of the SEALR team. Despite a delay to the start of works, the lifting of the bridge beams went very well.

The work was due to commence when the railway closed at 2300 on Christmas Eve but was delayed until 1800 on Christmas Day due to the wind speed being too high. Despite losing 17 hours, the site team remain focussed and were ready to go once the conditions were safe. The team worked very well to complete the central beams, switching the lifting sequence to put in the West beams followed by the East beams.

The work was undertaken safely and efficiently, the team complete the work ahead of schedule and handed back possession to Network Rail 11 hours early at 17:30 on 28 December 202. Very well done to all involved and thank you to residents for their patience and understanding while these works took place.

Bridge Progress
Whilst this key milestone has been successfully achieved, there is still much work to do on the bridge in the coming months.

The bridge is a composite steel and reinforced concrete design. With the steel beams lifted into place over Christmas, it now requires concrete to be poured along with other activities.

The team has recently been working on the bridge deck bearings, part of the support for the deck at the interface between the piers and abutments, which support the deck, and we now need to wait for the grout to reach the right strength. Current work involves preparing the steel bridge deck, including formwork, to receive the reinforced concrete slab.

There is significant steel reinforcement to be implemented. Some 170 tonnes of steel reinforcement needs to be installed and tied together. Once this is installed, it will allow the concrete to be poured. It will be poured in 8 separate stages to allow for optimum concrete curing time. 

Some of the work needs to be undertaken when the railway is not in use, such as took place overnight on 18 January to install permanent formwork on the central and west span.

The concrete pours are either 60m3 or 120m3 and they will start with the West side and East side with a central pour then taking place at Easter as it is over the railway.

The Easter works are currently expected to take place under a closure of the railway that HS2 has booked between 0100 on Friday 3 until 0520 on Tuesday 7 April.

However, it is anticipated that the concrete pour will be undertaken on Friday 3 April during the day and be completed the same day and there will be no other construction work taking place that weekend.

By the end of the Easter weekend, a total of 3 pours will have been completed. The remaining 5 pours are expected to be undertaken during normal weekday working hours in April and May.

Works to be undertaken in May and beyond include a concrete transition slab adjacent to both the West and East side of the bridge deck, waterproofing the deck followed by installation of the combined kerb/drainage units, utility ducts followed by road surfacing and installation of an acoustic fence on the North side of the bridge.

Phase 2 Update
Whilst the road was open to traffic on 5 November 2025 some works remain ongoing with respect to landscaping and fencing, as well as snagging. This is why there is traffic management on the new road, and is necessary to protect the workforce whilst these works are undertaken.

Some of the landscaping work is being undertaken behind the bund North of Phase 2 and further landscaping will be implemented on the South side now that some technical issues have been resolved.

The Eastbound approach to the Lower Road is being opened to 2 lanes during the afternoon peak to ease congestion, and it is expected that temporary traffic management will be removed in early March.

Wendover Road Roundabout Works
With the bridge works progressing well, the focus has turned to the completion of Wendover Road roundabout. As has been reported in previous bulletins, this work has been and continues to be hampered by a number of challenges, especially utilities. The team has been working closely with the utilities and the Council's streetworks team to identify a programme of work that means it can be undertaken safely whilst seeking to minimise disruption to road users.

To construct a roundabout on top of an existing busy road will always lead to some disruption. The work includes; installing new drainage pipes, lengthening an existing drainage culvert under the Wendover Road, diverting utilities, new road and footway construction, street lighting, traffic signals for the 3 new pedestrian crossings, acoustic fencing, traffic signs and road markings.

The initial plan involved 3 weeks of 24/7 3 way temporary traffic signals, during school term time, followed by a further 3 weeks of off peak 3 way temporary signals as well as other periods of disruptive work during term time. Due to the site layout, the signals on Wendover Road would need to have been nearly 300m apart leading to lots of lost time in each sequence of the signals to allow vehicles to clear that length.

Recognising the impact that around 6 weeks of disruptive signals could have, the team has been looking at ways to reduce this by maximising the work undertaken under the current temporary traffic management arrangements, re-sequencing the works and undertaking works during school holiday time.

Whilst the team has reduced the duration of work that requires traffic management, there will still be disruption caused, for which the SEALR team apologises.

Some works were undertaken on the weekend of 17/18 January using two way signals to undertake utility diversion works.

Works will also continue for the rest of January and early February using the current traffic management arrangements which allows 2 way traffic. These works on the West side of the roundabout include installing lighting columns, electrical works for the lighting and traffic signs, lower layers of road construction and some works to the drainage culvert South of the roundabout.

The planned temporary traffic management arrangements are:

February Half Term
0600 Saturday 14 February to 1800 Sunday 22 February - Road closed 24/7

Easter holiday
0600 Saturday 28 March to 1800 Sunday 12 April - Road closed 24/7

The diversion route is Wendover Road, Mandeville Road, Lower Road, Station Road, Wendover Road and vice versa and this will clearly be busy during the closure periods.

Nearby residents on Wendover Road will always be able to access their properties but, depending on the work taking place, may need to follow the diversion route. Access will also be maintained for Taylor Wimpey to access their development and emergency ambulances. Adjacent residents will be contacted by the team with further information prior to the closure.

During the February closure, it is intended that the noisiest works will be undertaken during the day. Works will also be undertaken at night with activities such as installing lighting columns, which should be less noisy. The works that will be undertaken during the February closure includes drainage works under the existing Wendover Road, extending the drainage culvert on the East side of the road, ducting for cables for street lighting and pedestrian crossing as well as fencing. Soon after the closure, the street lighting on the East side of the roundabout is expected to go live.

The traffic management will return to the arrangement is has been for some time with traffic using the roundabout Southbound and the old road Northbound with 2 way flow from 22 February. Under this arrangement, during week commencing 23 February there will be a significant amount of surfacing work on the West side of the roundabout to construct further layers of the carriageway construction.

Work on the roundabout will then start again in earnest under the road closure starting on Saturday 28 March. Over that weekend, the splitter islands on the North and South approaches to the roundabout will be completed alongside ducting work. Further road construction layers will also be installed before the final surfacing is laid which is expected to be undertaken at night. Final works include road markings and the installation of pedestrian crossings.

The only work remaining at the roundabout after Easter is some drainage works within the roundabout central island itself but these works will be undertaken by coning off the inner lane of the roundabout thus allowing 2 way flow and use of the roundabout.

Clearly the closure of a busy A road will cause disruption and inconvenience for which the team apologises but the result of this will be an operational roundabout on Wendover Road and this should be the last major roadworks required on Wendover Road and Lower Road by the SEALR project.

We apologise for any inconvenience related to these works and we encourage all road users to plan their journeys in advance and to allow some extra time. Please keep up to date with roadworks via one.network as well as following Buckinghamshire Highways on social media when not driving. Motorists are encouraged to keep an eye out for the electronic signs on site providing advanced information and to safely use sat navs as they can assist drivers with their journeys by providing live information on delays and to try to be patient if there are delays.

Phase 1 opening
There are a number of challenges still facing the project team but the current programme shows that Phase 1, between Wendover Road and Lower Road, is expected to open to traffic in November 2026.

This will be a major milestone in the delivery of the Aylesbury link roads. It will also assist with alleviating traffic conditions on the Aylesbury network. The mitigation for HS2 closing the Risborough Road and constructing Stoke Mandeville Relief Road is the delivery of SEALR Phase 1.

At the same time as the road opens, residents will also be able to use the pedestrian crossing of the railway South of SEALR that is currently closed. Despite Network Rail pressure to permanently close the pedestrian crossing, it will re-open once SEALR is complete.

The SEALR team spent quite a lot of energy a few years ago to design the bridge to ensure that pedestrians have sufficient visibility and also the ability to hear approaching trains in line with standards and Network Rail accepted the design and evidence that was put forward.

The team's focus is now delivering the remainder of the SEALR project and allowing residents and businesses to use the new infrastructure.

Social Value
In bulletin 68, we highlighted a significant range of social value activities that the team has been undertaking.

To round off a highly productive year for SEALR and our social value projects, we were proud to support another of Buckinghamshire Council's chosen charities and one of the Christmas Angels: Inspire Bucks.

In September, the team reached out to the sub contractors to request Amazon vouchers to help purchase gifts for this wonderful cause. Thanks to their generosity, an incredible £1,600 was raised and used to buy items from Inspire Bucks' wish list.

We have more social value projects underway and look forward to sharing them with you in future bulletins.

Progress Photos
All bridge images are taken from north west corner of the bridge looking south.

Boxing Day – Central beams installed

28/12/2025 - Beam lift complete!

20/01/2026 - Wendover Road progress

Contact details
We have a dedicated mailbox for this project: sealr@buckinghamshire.gov.uk and we welcome emails and queries about the scheme. If you wish to unsubscribe from this bulletin list, please email with the subject 'unsubscribe'. We will aim to respond to all queries within 10 working days.

Latest news and plans for the scheme are available at www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/sealr.