Herts - A120 Little Hadham bypass

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MayzieY
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Re: Herts - A120 Little Hadham bypass

Post by MayzieY »

My understanding is that Herts have put their eggs in their A414 corridor, while Essex have concentrated on the A120 in the northern part of the county, not least to serve Stansted Airport. Herts, with their plans to introduce an MRT along the A414, are not likely to have any intentions of delivering anything else along the A120. The other pinchpoint, Standon, would need a significant scheme as well.
Lewis1997
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Re: Herts - A120 Little Hadham bypass

Post by Lewis1997 »

MayzieY wrote: Tue Jul 07, 2020 13:26 My understanding is that Herts have put their eggs in their A414 corridor, while Essex have concentrated on the A120 in the northern part of the county, not least to serve Stansted Airport. Herts, with their plans to introduce an MRT along the A414, are not likely to have any intentions of delivering anything else along the A120. The other pinchpoint, Standon, would need a significant scheme as well.
I think Essex & Herts need to agree together on what to prioritise; do they improve the A120 further between the A10 and M11 or they do they commit to the backdated plans of a new offline D2 route for the A414 to the north of Harlow and connect to the new J7a on the M11.
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c2R
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Re: Herts - A120 Little Hadham bypass

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Lewis1997 wrote: Tue Jul 07, 2020 14:10
MayzieY wrote: Tue Jul 07, 2020 13:26 My understanding is that Herts have put their eggs in their A414 corridor, while Essex have concentrated on the A120 in the northern part of the county, not least to serve Stansted Airport. Herts, with their plans to introduce an MRT along the A414, are not likely to have any intentions of delivering anything else along the A120. The other pinchpoint, Standon, would need a significant scheme as well.
I think Essex & Herts need to agree together on what to prioritise; do they improve the A120 further between the A10 and M11 or they do they commit to the backdated plans of a new offline D2 route for the A414 to the north of Harlow and connect to the new J7a on the M11.
For strategic purposes, the A414 in Essex isn't particularly significant; while the A120 and A130 are the two growth corridors (outside the green belt). Whereas in Hertfordshire, the A414 is the significant corridor, linking the settled areas.

A Standon bypass won't happen as neither the northern or the southern options are environmentally palatable. A scheme instead to improve the road through the village is currently underway. The Little Hadham scheme is purposely designed to not generate significant amounts of additional strategic traffic - you can see this from how it returns back to the original route and approaches Stortford, rather than taking a much more logical route to join the Stortford bypass in the north west corner directly, for instance.

It is likely that future Hertfordshire developments will be the A414 to the M11 J7a, and a southern Hertford bypass.
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Re: Herts - A120 Little Hadham bypass

Post by millionmiledriver »

if you live on the Herts /Essex border as I do you soon realise that in road matters there is zero co-operation between the 2 counties which was shown when the unclassified road through Gt Hallingbury was closed for some months for sewer work and the roads section in Herts thought it was a good idea to close the B1383 (the old A11) through Bishops Stortford for resurfacing all traffic had to detour through housing estates You can see why when Herts prioritises the A414 and Essex the A120
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trickstat
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Re: Herts - A120 Little Hadham bypass

Post by trickstat »

From the point of view of the internal geography of each county you can see why the respective priorities of the CCs differ:

The A120 in Essex is the main E-W link road for most of the north of the county including Braintree, Colchester and Harwich and meets the M11 and A12.

The A120 in Herts is effectively a spur of the A10, largely useful for linking Bishop's Stortford with Stevenage and North Herts.

The A414 in Herts is, along with the M25, the main E-W route in the county. Going through or close to Hemel, St Albans, Hatfield, Welwyn GC, Hertford, Ware and Hoddesdon and meeting the A41, M1, A1(M) and A10.

The A414 in Essex is the road linking Harlow, Chelmsford and Maldon and I'm not sure if the former 2 have that much to do with each other.

From Letchworth, I have a few times, on a weekend, driven to NW Chelmsford and I have used the A1060 via Sawbridgeworth (including level crossing) rather than the A414.
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Re: Herts - A120 Little Hadham bypass

Post by Runwell »

Whilst not trying to veer too off the subject, the A414 between Chelmsford and Harlow isn't in itself a strategically important route. In fact, it's quicker sometimes to either take the A1060 and cut through via Sheering, or go the long way (A12/M25/M11), as the A414, even with plenty of overtaking opportunities west of Chelmsford and Writtle, can often feel like an A17 convoy. The section from Ongar to the M11 via North Weald, however, is a much busier section of road, made even worse during problems on the A12, M25 or M11. There's more of a strategic need to upgrade that section, and the Ongar to North Weald stretch is a nasty twisty route that really needs a bypass.
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Re: Herts - A120 Little Hadham bypass

Post by MayzieY »

c2R wrote: Tue Jul 07, 2020 15:08
The Little Hadham scheme is purposely designed to not generate significant amounts of additional strategic traffic - you can see this from how it returns back to the original route and approaches Stortford, rather than taking a much more logical route to join the Stortford bypass in the north west corner directly, for instance.

It is likely that future Hertfordshire developments will be the A414 to the M11 J7a, and a southern Hertford bypass.
I think the Lt Hadham bypass design was to avoid CPO issues at the Stortford end, which would have delayed the scheme, and missed the funding window that was available.

Extending the A414 dualling across the north of Harlow to J7a, together with the requisite southern bypass scheme around Hertford, it would become a proxy outer M25, drawing in orbital strategic traffic, rather than benefiting local journeys.
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Re: Herts - A120 Little Hadham bypass

Post by MayzieY »

And the scheme opening has now been delayed until late summer 2021:

https://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/media- ... r-june.pdf
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Re: Herts - A120 Little Hadham bypass

Post by NICK 647063 »

I noticed streetview is updated here and looking at it does anyone know why the lampposts on the roundabouts at each end are tiny? I understand the east end has pylons nearby but usually only lampposts under pylons are small then the rest full sized, the west end which has no pylons are the same, the streetlights are like something you would have in a small village or housing estate, I’ve certainly never seen them on a primary A road roundabout!

Link here https://goo.gl/maps/V2eAVXPyxWZHHHr89
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Re: Herts - A120 Little Hadham bypass

Post by WHBM »

MayzieY wrote: Sat Jul 11, 2020 17:37 Extending the A414 dualling across the north of Harlow to J7a, together with the requisite southern bypass scheme around Hertford, it would become a proxy outer M25, drawing in orbital strategic traffic, rather than benefiting local journeys.
It's funny how these approaches develop, that all road users are equal, but some are more equal than others. Here it's local traffic diverted = good; more orbital traffic = bad. Sometimes on motorway congestion discussions the opposite is applied, that intermediate junctions should be closed (notwithstanding that long distance traffic has to start somewhere), with a local traffic = bad; longer distance traffic = good.
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Re: Herts - A120 Little Hadham bypass

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NICK 647063 wrote: Thu Apr 29, 2021 18:17 I noticed streetview is updated here and looking at it does anyone know why the lampposts on the roundabouts at each end are tiny? I understand the east end has pylons nearby but usually only lampposts under pylons are small then the rest full sized, the west end which has no pylons are the same, the streetlights are like something you would have in a small village or housing estate, I’ve certainly never seen them on a primary A road roundabout!

Link here https://goo.gl/maps/V2eAVXPyxWZHHHr89
Yes, they're like that because of a protected species of bat that lives in the area: https://www.standonparishcouncil.gov.uk ... 020-fv.pdf A significant number of Roman Snails were also relocated as part of the scheme.
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Re: Herts - A120 Little Hadham bypass

Post by Chris5156 »

c2R wrote: Thu Apr 29, 2021 20:18Yes, they're like that because of a protected species of bat that lives in the area: https://www.standonparishcouncil.gov.uk ... 020-fv.pdf A significant number of Roman Snails were also relocated as part of the scheme.
I didn't know snails lived that long!

:coat:
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Re: Herts - A120 Little Hadham bypass

Post by SteveA30 »

They needed the long life to build the straight roads so they wouldn't have to go at a snail's pace. :facepalm:
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Re: Herts - A120 Little Hadham bypass

Post by trickstat »

Chris5156 wrote: Thu Apr 29, 2021 22:55
c2R wrote: Thu Apr 29, 2021 20:18Yes, they're like that because of a protected species of bat that lives in the area: https://www.standonparishcouncil.gov.uk ... 020-fv.pdf A significant number of Roman Snails were also relocated as part of the scheme.
I didn't know snails lived that long!

:coat:
It's taken them 2000 years to get from the Roman city of Verulamium (St Albans) to Little Hadham.
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Re: Herts - A120 Little Hadham bypass

Post by c2R »

trickstat wrote: Fri Apr 30, 2021 08:11
Chris5156 wrote: Thu Apr 29, 2021 22:55
c2R wrote: Thu Apr 29, 2021 20:18Yes, they're like that because of a protected species of bat that lives in the area: https://www.standonparishcouncil.gov.uk ... 020-fv.pdf A significant number of Roman Snails were also relocated as part of the scheme.
I didn't know snails lived that long!

:coat:
It's taken them 2000 years to get from the Roman city of Verulamium (St Albans) to Little Hadham.
Ha... Interestingly, the area was a significant intersection of roads in Roman times with a large settlement in the area north of Puckeridge, and local saying is it that the Romans introduced them as food and they spread around the surrounding area.
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Re: Herts - A120 Little Hadham bypass

Post by ravenbluemoon »

There's also an Iron Age (I think) circular mound and moat just north of Hadham Hall. The bypass runs quite close to the north of it. I had a quick poke around when I was doing the planning survey a few years back, but there's not much to see - it's quite weathered and covered in small trees.
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Re: Herts - A120 Little Hadham bypass

Post by c2R »

A couple of photos of the Hadham Park Roundabout, including the low streetlights:

Image

Check out the long arm on those next to the roundabout exit:

Image

A view up the new A120 itself looking NW

Image

The junction name on a sign

Image

Tilekiln Roundabout

Image
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From the SABRE Wiki: Hadham Park Roundabout :

Hadham Park Roundabout lies on the A120 to the west of Bishops Stortford. It serves the A120 Little Hadham Bypass. In March 2019, the first land clearance took place for the new roundabout and bypass, with the roundabout opening in 2021 in advance of the mains scheme.


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MayzieY
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Re: Herts - A120 Little Hadham bypass

Post by MayzieY »

Can anyone explain the reasoning/purpose of the perimeter fencing at both roundabouts? I've never noticed this type anywhere else, but it is comprised of metal posts and very thin wire, not particularly high (~6'), with narrower horizontal spacing on the top half when compared with the bottom and with vertical 'mid-air' posts in the upper part. Apologies for my poor description :-? but it doesn't appear to offer any deterrent to deer, and certainly does not offer any protections from either headlights or noise for nearby properties. :scratchchin:
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Re: Herts - A120 Little Hadham bypass

Post by roadphotos »

The A120 Little Hadham by-Pass is nearing completion. The opening date is December 22nd 2021
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Re: Herts - A120 Little Hadham bypass

Post by c2R »

roadphotos wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 16:50 The A120 Little Hadham by-Pass is nearing completion. The opening date is December 22nd 2021
It is, I went on the walk last weekend and got some photos. They'd already be online except that I've not had the time to shrink them all to under 1MB each to upload.
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