One of the UK's most frustrating road closures is over. Botley Road in Oxford — the main route linking the west of the city to the centre — has reopened after more than three and a half years of works that ended up costing £237.4m.

The scheme, run by Network Rail, involved rebuilding a rail bridge over the two-lane road plus wider improvements around Oxford station. It began in April 2023 with an October 2024 deadline, which came and went, as did a second target of August 2026. The original budget of £161m was blown out by what engineers describe as a nasty run of underground surprises: a major water pipe sitting on top of a Victorian sewer, a hidden Victorian arch beneath the railway, and gas leaks uncovered during excavation.

For a sense of scale, the Bank of England's inflation calculator puts the London Eye at the equivalent of £150m and the Millennium Bridge at £36m — both built in around 14 months. This bridge over a single road took more than twice as long as either and cost more than the two combined.

The human cost was real. Local campaigner Julian Le Vay estimated in January that businesses along the route lost about £50m, with more than 120 jobs gone, per the Oxford Mail. Shadow transport secretary Richard Holden called it three years of Oxford stuck in a jam for an over-budget bridge. Network Rail's Wales and western capital delivery director Tim Walden apologised for the disruption while calling the reopening a major milestone.

So what's actually finished? The road is open again, reconnecting west Oxford with the city centre — good news for anyone driving in, catching a train from Oxford station, or staying in the western neighbourhoods that lost footfall while the works dragged on. What hasn't happened yet: the remaining station upgrades, including a new platform, originally promised by the missed August 2026 deadline. Network Rail says those will follow at a later date.

For travellers, the practical takeaway is simple: getting to and from Oxford station is back to normal, with the western approach no longer a diversion maze. Whether you're arriving by rail from London Paddington or driving in from the west, the route into the city centre — and onward to the colleges, museums and riverside walks — is open again. If you're planning an Oxford trip in the next year or so, it's worth checking ahead on station improvement works, since further platform construction is still to come.