A120
From Roader's Digest: The SABRE Wiki
| A120 | ||||||||||||||||
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| From: | Puckeridge (TL380226) | |||||||||||||||
| To: | Harwich (TM258327) | |||||||||||||||
| Via: | Bishops Stortford, Braintree, Colchester | |||||||||||||||
| Length: | 55.5 miles (89.3 km) | |||||||||||||||
| Meets: | A10, M11, A130, A131, A12 | |||||||||||||||
| Primary Destinations | ||||||||||||||||
| Colchester • Harwich • | ||||||||||||||||
| Highways Authorities | ||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Counties | ||||||||||||||||
| Route outline (key) | ||||||||||||||||
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For the benefit of those who may not know it, the A120 runs from Puckeridge in the west to Harwich in the east. It is all primary. It is a straight route, following the line of the Roman Stane Street over much of its length.
Contents |
Route
Section 1: Puckeridge - Bishops Stortford
It starts at a roundabout on the A10 to the south-west of Puckeridge. This has been modified to accommodate the A10 Wadesmill bypass. The A120 heads east up a hill, bypassing the metropolis of Puckeridge, but ploughing into Standon. The road is single carriageway at this stage and has a pelican crossing and speed cameras in Standon village.
We continue east up another hill, round a few sweeping bends until we join the roman alignment of Stane Street. The straight alignment has one or two crests which reduce visibility to the point where overtaking becomes hazardous. Then suddenly, we come upon a queue of traffic waiting to pass through the notorious Little Hadham traffic signals. The problem is that the A120 narrows as it passes round a large 'S' bend, whilst also having a junction with a couple of side roads; at least one of which carries a reasonable volume of traffic. Traffic signals were provided many years ago to manage the flow, but in the peak hour, the queues are significant! There have been plans over the years to bypass these signals, either as a local bypass or as part of an old plan to extend the A120 westwards towards Stevenage and the A1(M), but to date these have come to nothing.
Continuing east, there is another short hop before we reach the Bishop's Park roundabout on the western fringe of Bishop's Stortford. The original A120 followed the present A1250 into Stortford, meeting the old A11 at another notorious set of signals at Hockerill. The signals are still there, but both the A11 and A120 have been downgraded - the former by the construction of the M11, and the latter by the construction of a non-descript single carriageway northern bypass to Bishops Stortford. Westbound traffic on the bypass gets the benefit of a climbing lane on the western part of the bypass, but eastbound traffic has to make do with the single lane.
Section 2: Bishops Stortford - Great Dunmow
The eastbound exit at the roundabout with the B1183 (was A11) has a poor alignment. The exit is straight alongside the splitter island, and then has a sharpish left to pick up the main route alignment. Surely the exit should have been designed with a smoother curve?
We pass another roundabout, built in the early 1990s, which picks up the east end of the A1250. Then, a few hundred yards later we reach the M11 (junction 8). This beast of a roundabout serves the A120, Stansted Airport, and a motorway service area and was always clogged with traffic. A couple of improvements in recent years have helped; a short length of carriageway was built to allow M11 southbound traffic to bypass the Airport and A120 exits. In 2003, the long-awaited direct slips were provided between the M11 (south) and the Airport Access road.
Until December 2003, the A120 followed a single carriageway alignment, still on the Roman road, through Takeley and on to Great Dunmow and Braintree. The Four Ashes traffic signals in Takeley were notoriously congested. In December 2003, this road was bypassed by a new dual carriageway alignment running from the Airport Access Road to Braintree.
This means that the A120 now follows the airport access road (Thremhall Avenue) for a couple of miles. Traffic coming from London on the M11 can therefore now join the A120 by direct free-flow slips. From Stansted Airport, the A120 continues east, skirting to the north of Takeley. If the second runway proposal for Stansted is ever completed, then the new A120 is likely to form the southern boundary to the airport.
Soon after leaving the airport we pass to the south of Great Dunmow.
Dunmow is famous for its Flitch trials- a folk ceremony from yesteryear. A married couple stand before a jury consisting of six maidens and six bachelors of Dunmow. They have to prove that, for a year and a day, they have 'not wished themselves unwed'. If they can prove this, they are awarded half a pig, known as a 'flitch' of bacon. The trials are held every four years - the next occasion being in July 2012.
Section 3: Great Dunmow - Harwich
East of Dunmow we soon join the Braintree bypass. All of the road since Stansted has been dualled to tie into the existing dualled section of the Braintree bypass. Continuing east, we pass to the south of Braintree, turning northwards. At a roundabout, the dual carriageway ends and all the A120 turns right onto yet more single carriageway road, recently a pedestrian crossing was installed at Bradwell to improve the road for pedestrians. However, Highway bosses were left embarrassed after the new road layout was deemed unsuitable for wide vehicles, the central traffic island forcing them onto the pavement posing a threat to pedestrians. Apart from that it's largely unimproved except for a bypass around Coggeshall and some resurfacing works carried out on the bypass as the road surface became bumpy.
All this leaves an unanswered question. Why spend £80M dualling the A120 between Stansted and Braintree, then leave the last 8 miles to the A12 as single carriageway. Has Braintree become such a major destination that most of the traffic stops there? It strikes me that the pressure on the remaining single carriageway section between Stansted and the A12 will become so intolerable that it will be necessary to dual this as well. A report by the Road Safety Foundation found the A120 between Braintree and Marks Tey to be the 10th most dangerous in the country.
From here, we multiplex for another seven or eight miles before we turn off the A12 via a freeflow interchange to resume the A120 towards Harwich. Eight more miles of dual carriageway then it's back to single carriageway for the final haul to Harwich. This last section was once the A604.
Original Author(s): Simon Davies
Planned
Braintree - Marks Tey Consultation
Public consultations for the new bypass opened in late 2005, four different routes were outlined that would provide the best efficiency with minimal damage to the environment. Due to the A120 being of regional importance, plans were prioritised to start sometime between 2011-2016 with completion post 2016. The route was planned to go south of the original road, with a freeflowing junction with the A12 which would tie in with the widening works there. The new dual carriageway would pass close to several different villages and other sites of interest including Marks Hall Country Park and Bradwell Quary. Therefore, due to local pressure and the fact it was financially inviable, the plans were scrapped in July 2009. £1.67 million of taxpayer's money was spent on the plans.
West Tey Consortium
The West Tey Consortium are plans put forward to build a brand new village, with between six and ten thousand homes plus other amenities between Coggeshall and Marks Tey. If the plans were to go ahead then the landowners say that they will upgrade the A120, including a brand new "Marks Tey Bypass" to coincide with improvements to the A12. There are hopes that the realignment is built within five years time and the first houses going up just two years after that. All the proposals are part of development in the east of England between 2011 and 2031.
Links
CBRD
roadsUK
