Great Western Coffee Shop

At Thatcham station the footbridge is being replaced by a new one in prep for electrification.

This sometimes involves equipment moves from one side to another (e.g., dumper trucks and fork lift trucks)

When moving from the north (Thatcham) side to the southern (canal) side this isn't a problem but when equipment needs to move the other way this gets more involved because you can not turn into the road next to the station - it is exit only the entrance being via a detour on pipers lane which is what most station bound traffic has to use. I reckon this detour is probably about half a mile

So (at last!) my question is do contractors have special rights of way in situations like this?

Just curious!

no, they don't

Not as of right but they can apply to the Local/Highways authority for temporary provisions such as closures, diversions, parking bay suspensions and other permits etc to enable the work to take place.

But they have to pay for these, so often don't bother & break the law hoping no one will notice

...........and/or they know the process is so bureaucratic and time consuming it'll delay the job for months so break the law &  hope no-one will notice!!!

It would be hard to delay the work at Thatcham much more, it seems to be proceeding at a snails pace to me.

Who owns the roads involved, if they are NR owned but have public right of way then NR can authorise what the contractors can do, if they are local authority owned then a licence is required

I'm not sure who owns the road in question but thought that as they were used to access other businesses they weren't owned by NR (but could be wrong) .

I seem to recall many years ago that the "exit only" flow which leads out of the station was reverted to two way operation and during this time the no entry signs were covered up.

There are some local drivers who do drop offs In the morning who drive into the station via the "no-entry" entrance to save using the proper route.