Oxford roadworks: A34 night closures, Botley Road open

The A34 southbound is closed overnight from tonight, between Hinksey Hill and the Marcham interchange, from 9pm to 6am. It runs Monday to Friday this week and again next week. Traffic is signed off the A34 and through Abingdon.

Two things changed at the weekend. Botley Road reopened on Sunday 20 September after three and a half years shut, and both bus operators rebuilt their networks the same morning. A week from now, on Monday 28 September, the congestion charge is replaced by six traffic filters.

In the city centre, Broad Street and the lanes around the Bodleian close on and off until Friday for a film crew.

This page tracks Oxford roadworks: what is closed today, what is coming this autumn, and the parking and park and ride prices that do not move week to week. Everything below was checked against the responsible authority’s own notice or page on 21 September 2026.

Closed right now in Oxford

These are the live temporary orders made under section 14 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, as published in the county council’s statutory notices, plus the county’s own pages for its major schemes. The dates are the authority’s own anticipated completion dates, so they can slip.

Five closures that were on this page have run out: Davenant Road (11 September), Adelaide Street in Jericho (13 September), Robert Robinson Avenue at the Oxford Science Park (15 September), the A4183 Lodge Hill southbound lane closure (16 September) and Botley Road itself. Neither council publishes a list of what has reopened, so apart from Botley Road, where Network Rail has said so, we can only tell you the order has expired.

The A4183 is the exception worth naming. The county now says the two-way temporary lights between the Lodge Hill garage entrance and the new south roundabout are staying for about four weeks, running 24 hours a day and manually controlled from 7am to 7pm. Housebuilder David Wilson is working on the Peachcroft roundabout at the same time, and the council says extra delay there is likely.

Starting in the next few days

• Kennedy Close in Cowley closes from 23 September to 23 October for the same Scottish and Southern cable work.
• Thames Street closes on the nights of 23 and 24 September, 8pm to 6am. Oxford Bus Company is diverting via Speedwell Street, Norfolk Street, Castle Street and Gloucester Green, and says passengers for the Wood Farm 15 should board at Speedwell Street stop S2.
• The Oxford Science Park entrance closes on 26 and 27 September, with the 600 diverting to keep the Magdalen Centre stop.
• Bayswater Road in Barton closes 30 September to 7 October for a link box replacement, signed via Brampton Road, Burchester Avenue, Underhill Circus and Mather Road.
• St Clements Street closes overnight from 9pm on 29 September to 5am on 30 September, the night after the traffic filters start. The 4, 8, 15, 400, X32 and Airline services divert via Marston Road, Marston Ferry Road, Banbury Road, George Street, New Road, Castle Street and Speedwell Street, and the X3 misses the Marston Road stops altogether.

Two bus stop suspensions are also running, both from Oxford Bus Company: the Lidl stops on Watlington Road in Cowley, where the Car Factory Gate stops are the alternative, and the Holiday Inn Express stop at Littlemore towards Oxford until 28 September, where the Kassam Stadium stop is the alternative.

One permanent change took effect today. The county made an order on 14 September replacing about five metres of permit parking outside No.24 Howard Street, in East Oxford, with double yellow lines, to open up the sightline at the Flower Lane junction for cyclists.

Botley Road is open

Botley Road reopened on the morning of Sunday 20 September, three and a half years after Network Rail closed it at the railway bridge in April 2023. Network Rail confirmed it in a statement that morning.

The things most likely to catch you out:

• The new bridge has a 4.4 metre height clearance, signed on the ring road. Double deckers fit.
• The two new walkways under the bridge are four metres wide, and the cycleways on them are one-way. Ride into the city on the northern side, out of it on the southern side.
• A new footbridge links Becket Street car park to the front of the station, and the Becket Street spaces used by the works are back.
• The Botley Flyer minibus ran for the last time on Saturday 19 September, and the temporary station gate at Roger Dudman Way has closed.

Our full account of what reopened and what has not is in Botley Road reopens after three and a half years.

One caution if you are checking elsewhere. Network Rail’s own Botley Road bridge page still carries a timeline ending “August 2026: Botley Road reopens”, still tells you buses terminate either side of the bridge, and still lists Botley Flyer pick-up times. It has not been updated. The county council’s reopening page is the one being maintained.

Traffic filters: starting Monday 28 September

On 24 August 2026 the county council made the experimental order that brings in the filters. It comes into force on Monday 28 September, a start date the council had made conditional on Botley Road reopening on 20 September. That condition is now met.

The six locations, as written into the order:

• 7am to 7pm, every day: Hythe Bridge Street west of Rewley Road, St Clements east of Boulter Street and Jeune Street, St Cross Road south of Manor Road, and Thames Street east of Blackfriars Road.
• 7am to 9am and 3pm to 6pm, Monday to Saturday: Hollow Way between James Wolfe Road and Dene Road, and Marston Ferry Road west of the access to The Swan School.

The single most important change: you can no longer pay £5 to drive through. Under the congestion charge that option existed. Under the filters it does not.

What stays the same:

• Only cars are affected. Vans, lorries, minibuses, coaches and motorcycles can use any route at any time without a permit. The catch is that the DVLA usually classes a motorhome as M1, a passenger car, so motorhomes are caught.
• Enforcement is by ANPR camera. There are no barriers and no gates.
• Permits carry over. If you hold a congestion charge permit it transfers automatically and you do not reapply.

One group does have to act. The central permit area is being abolished, because with Botley Road open every part of Oxford can be reached without passing a filter. Central area resident permits transfer to the Oxford permit area with 100 day passes. Central area visitor permits, workplace parking permits and sports club, nursery or military training permits all expire when the congestion charge ends, and unused visitor day passes will not be valid.

If you get it wrong, the penalty charge is £70, reduced to £35 if paid within 21 days. For the first six months of the trial, the first time a car goes through without a permit the council sends a warning notice rather than a fine.

Because it is an experimental order it can run for a maximum of 18 months, and anyone may object to it being made permanent within six months of 28 September. Objections go to the traffic filters team at County Hall or to trafficfilters@oxfordshire.gov.uk, and the detailed particulars are on the council’s Let’s Talk site. Separately, anyone arguing the order is outside the council’s powers has six weeks from 24 August to apply to the High Court, which runs out in early October.

Coming up: what is already ordered

Sunday 11 October, the Oxford Half Marathon. This is the biggest planned closure of the autumn inside the city. The county council has published a proposed special event order for the race, organised by Motiv Sports (UK) Limited. The headline windows:

• 09:00 Saturday 10 October to 21:00 Sunday 11 October: Mansfield Road, Savile Road, Holywell Street and Jowett Walk, for the start and finish.
• 06:00 to 16:00 on the Sunday: South Parks Road, St Cross Road, Longwall Street, Radcliffe Square, Catte Street, Broad Street, Parks Road, Museum Road, Blackhall Road, Keble Road, Magdalen Bridge and Turl Street between Broad Street and Ship Street.
• 07:30 to 14:00: the North Oxford streets off Banbury Road, as far out as Beech Croft Road.
• 07:30 to 13:30: Marston Ferry Road, Cherwell Drive, Elsfield Road, Marsh Lane and both A40 slip roads at the Marston junction.

The notice is worded as a proposal, with the order due to be dated 5 October, so the detail can still change. Our full road-by-road list and timings are in Oxford Half 2026: roads shut from 9am on Saturday.

2 to 5 October, the A34 southbound closes at night well south of the city. Between the Milton and Chilton interchanges, south of Abingdon, the southbound carriageway is fully shut 9pm to 6am so the Harwell layby can be tied in, with traffic sent off at Milton along the A4130 through Steventon and Harwell and back on at Chilton. In daylight on the Saturday and Sunday, 6am to 9pm, lane one stays shut and the limit drops to 50mph. Signs go up as far out as the M4, A404 and M40.

October, a fortnight of resurfacing in Barton, Northway and Cowley. ODS Group is running micro asphalt across a run of streets, each closed for the week of 19 to 23 October unless stated: Bernwood Road, Atkinson Close, Malford Road, Claymond Road, Humfrey Road, Routh Road, Henry Taunt Close, Brome Place and Cranley Road, which is ordered through to 31 October. Waynflete Road is the signed alternative for several of them. An order in the same batch closes Iffley Road for the same week, and the notice does not say which section.

Other autumn orders already made or notified:

• Jack Straw’s Lane, 12 to 14 October, Thames Water lining and patch repairs, with diversions via Headley Way and Marston Road.
• Margaret Road, 12 to 16 October, power link box replacement, via St Anne’s Road, Gathorne Road and Windmill Road.
• Fletcher Road, 22 October to 11 December, cable work by Scottish and Southern.
• St Bernard’s Road, 26 October to 1 November, a foul and surface water connection, via Leckford Road, Woodstock Road and Kingston Road.
• St Michael’s Street, 11 November, 9.30am to 3.30pm, Openreach cabling.
• Binsey Lane, 11 to 13 November, to recover a buried water valve 120 metres south of the Medley Manor Farm entrance.
• Dene Road, Headington, for the whole of 11 November, Openreach overhead cabling, via Coverley Road, Bulan Road and the B4495.
• Yeats Close, 16 November to 11 December, cable work.

Islip Bridge: closed to vehicles from 28 September

Islip is about six miles north of Oxford, and its bridge closure matters in the city mainly because of the bus. The county council republished the order on 3 September. The work was originally planned for July and August and is now set for 28 September to 20 November, with preparation under temporary signals from 21 September.

The closure covers King’s Head Lane between Mill Street and Middle Street, Lower Street from Wheatley Road, Mill Street between The Walk and Wheatley Road, The Walk, and the B4027 Wheatley Road from Mill Street. Islip’s one-way order is suspended for the duration. Pedestrians and cyclists keep access throughout.

The diversion in the order was written for the H5 between Bicester and the John Radcliffe, which went via Kidlington Road, Bicester Road, the A40 and Barton, with a shuttle between Barton and the stop on the south side of the bridge. The H5 itself no longer exists: Oxford Bus Company’s new service 25 took on the Bicester to JR link via Islip on 20 September. Check with the operator before you rely on the shuttle.

The Zero Emission Zone, which is a separate thing

People conflate the two. The Zero Emission Zone is a small pilot covering a handful of city centre streets, it applies to all vehicles rather than just cars, and it charges by emissions rather than by permit.

Charges apply 7am to 7pm, seven days a week, all year, and cover the whole day however many times you enter:

A vehicle parked inside the zone that does not move is not charged.

Park and ride, and the £3 Park + Bus ticket

Oxford has five park and ride sites on the ring road: Pear Tree and Oxford Parkway to the north, Thornhill to the east, Redbridge to the south and Seacourt to the west on Botley Road.

Seacourt is the one that changed on Sunday. With Botley Road open, its buses run straight into the city centre instead of stopping at Osney Island, and the 400 is back at up to every 10 minutes.

Parking charges are the same at all of them:

• Up to 1 hour: free, though you must still register the session.
• 1 to 16 hours: £2.50.
• 16 to 24 hours: £4.50.
• 2 days: £8.50. 3 days: £12.50, which is also the maximum stay.
• 28 days: £45, RingGo only.
• Blue Badge holders park free in any bay.

The bus offer changed last month. Free day return bus travel from the park and ride sites ended on 16 August 2026. Since 17 August the discounted Park + Bus ticket costs £3, and it covers parking for one car for up to 16 hours plus return bus travel for up to five people of any age.

Two practical points the council makes about it:

• Buy it at the park and ride site or on the RingGo app, not on the bus.
• It is valid on any Stagecoach, Oxford Bus Company or Thames Travel bus that stops within a park and ride site, not only the named park and ride services. Show the driver your parking ticket or an active RingGo session on the way in and on the way back.

For a family that is still the cheapest way into the centre by a distance.

Pear Tree, the largest, has 1,035 spaces at OX2 8JZ, 18 disabled bays and a 2.3 metre height limit.

A40 Eynsham park and ride: nothing opens before 2028

Vegetation clearance, ecological work and utility diversions have started on the £126m A40 Eynsham park and ride to Wolvercote scheme, which will add bus lanes along the A40 corridor and finally bring the built park and ride into use.

The timetable is long. Planning permission was granted on 30 June 2026, and the council and Balfour Beatty then reviewed the programme. Oxfordshire County Council now expects enabling works in autumn 2026, main construction from spring 2027, the park and ride open in early summer 2028 and the whole scheme finished by summer 2029. Connecting the park and ride to the A40 is being done first.

School Streets: Sandhills

One Oxford school joined the county’s School Streets scheme this term. Delbush Avenue is closed to motor vehicles at both ends, at its junctions with Merewood Avenue and Hill View, for Sandhills Community Primary School.

The closures run 8am to 9am and 2.30pm to 3.30pm, Monday to Friday in term time only. Residents, visitors, blue badge holders, deliveries, school transport and emergency vehicles are exempt. The order was made on 17 August 2026 as an experimental order, so it can run for a maximum of 18 months, and anyone can object within six months of it coming into force.

The routes that carry Oxford between roadworks

These do not change, and they are what most journeys actually depend on:

• North to south the city has essentially two through routes, the Banbury Road and Woodstock Road corridor into St Giles, and the A4144 Abingdon Road over Folly Bridge. When one is blocked the other absorbs it, badly.
• East to west you have Botley Road, the High Street and the Headington radial. The A40 and A34 ring road is almost always faster than crossing the middle, even when it looks longer.
• The Headington roads carry the John Radcliffe, the Churchill and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, so hospital traffic peaks earlier than commuter traffic and holds up longer.
• Oxford station is reached from Botley Road again, and from Frideswide Square as it has been throughout.

Also on The Oxford Post

• Oxford trains to London: times, fares and what the station works are for.
• Oxford planning news: the Local Plan 2045 and the sites allocated for homes.
• Things to do in Oxford: where to go once you have parked.