A12 Chelmsford to A120 Widening Scheme

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BF2142
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Re: A12 Chelmsford to A120 Widening Scheme

Post by BF2142 »

owen b wrote: Sun Sep 06, 2020 21:12
Glenn A wrote: Sun Sep 06, 2020 18:27 The A12 from London to Ipswich should have been considered for widening and possibly to a D3M as early as the Roads To Prosperity era.
Roads to Prosperity included big upgrade plans for the A12 :
new D2M from the M25 to Chelmsford
D3 for Chelmsford bypass
D3 for Hatfield Peverel to Witham
and beyond Ipswich :
D2 for Wickham Market to Farnham
D2 for Saxmundham to Lowestoft
The section from Colchester to Ipswich is appalling quality with poor visi, some curves with chevron signage, ped pavement next to the road and some massive undulations. In my ideal world, M25 to Ipswich should be a new, greenfield D3M. Seriously, it's 2020.
Jon Waters
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Re: A12 Chelmsford to A120 Widening Scheme

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jackal
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Re: A12 Chelmsford to A120 Widening Scheme

Post by jackal »

Jon Waters wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 18:42 https://highwaysengland.co.uk/our-work/ ... ng-scheme/

Consultation has started today
Thanks for that.

It's pretty ambitious - 12 miles of new D3, linking the existing sections at Hatfield Peverell and Marks Tey. There are no property accesses and the fairly substandard intermediate GSJs are demolished and replaced with full size dumbbells. So basically a motorway but without the HS and regulations, like the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon and LTC.

Overall it's a good design but they should designate it as motorway. Also some of the GSJs could be usefully retained on the old road rather than have pointless rbts plonked in the middle of them.

The design at J19 (Boreham) is interesting, with a genuine capacity improvement, albeit not really enough for the new A131 that will also plug in here:

A12 J19 - Copy.JPG
Jon Waters
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Re: A12 Chelmsford to A120 Widening Scheme

Post by Jon Waters »

Boreham improvements are already underway. Will be interesting what they plan on doing to it to make it 3 lanes through the junction when it comes to chelmsford widening. When or if it happens
Peter Freeman
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Re: A12 Chelmsford to A120 Widening Scheme

Post by Peter Freeman »

jackal wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 19:43 ... the fairly substandard intermediate GSJs are demolished and replaced with full size dumbbells ... Overall it's a good design ... The design at J19 (Boreham) is interesting ...
A dumbbell, fully signalised from the word go, with a 90 degree hamburger cut-through? Oh, come on.
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jackal
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Re: A12 Chelmsford to A120 Widening Scheme

Post by jackal »

The dumbbell is already there. I agree the cut through is a bit silly but there are a couple of new freeflow left turns, one of which even branches. I've really seen a lot worse though clearly it is well short of the freeflow rebuild that is required.
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Re: A12 Chelmsford to A120 Widening Scheme

Post by Peter Freeman »

jackal wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 22:51 The dumbbell is already there.
Oh, I see. (2nd time this month that I've posted without checking the links and Google Earth carefully enough :oops:). In that case, yes it's ok, within a limited budget.

Replacing the eastern roundabout with a much more capable perpendicular signalisation (one half of a diamond) would be easy and not too expensive, but without doing the western one too the release-platoon size differences and timings might not work well. The western side is more complex, so improvements to the dumbbell do make sense.
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Re: A12 Chelmsford to A120 Widening Scheme

Post by qwertyK »

I haven't been following this thread too closely, so forgive me if I ask something that has already been asked.

Is there a consensus for opening the new sections as motorways, eg, A12(M)/expressways, like the A14 upgrade was supposed to be? Given that the newbypasses at Rivenhall End for instance would provide a good D2 road for prohibited traffic, buses, pedestrians etc I can't see what the objections to designating the road a motorway would be. With the Rivenhall section bypassed, there is little excuse for the rest of the A12 not to be a motorway, or at least, the A12 north of Chelmsford. It seems quite ludicrous that such an important road has had such little investment, and the main road from London to the eastern ports has no motorway designation.

However exiciting this new scheme may be, I wish HE would just fix the appalling road surfaces around Chelmsford and Margaretting. It's a mix of concrete and asphalt and there are massive potholes that are just unacceptable for such a major road.
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Chris Bertram
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Re: A12 Chelmsford to A120 Widening Scheme

Post by Chris Bertram »

Peter Freeman wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 21:35
jackal wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 19:43 ... the fairly substandard intermediate GSJs are demolished and replaced with full size dumbbells ... Overall it's a good design ... The design at J19 (Boreham) is interesting ...
A dumbbell, fully signalised from the word go, with a 90 degree hamburger cut-through? Oh, come on.
It's a pitch for inclusion in Chris M's Bad Junctions section.
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roadphotos
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Re: A12 Chelmsford to A120 Widening Scheme

Post by roadphotos »

I did hear that 14,000 new homes are planned for the Chelmsford to Braintree corridor so without a free flowing A131 to A12 south at the Boreham Interchange and 3 lanes on the A12 Chelmsford By-Pass between Boreham and the 3 lane section of the A130 at Howe Green there's going to be a big pinchpoint with the majority of traffic from the A131 and Braintree wanting to go onto the A12 south. If all of these houses are going to be built then they should be building all this now otherwise we are going to end up with 3 lanes on the A12 from Colchester and a dualled A131 from Braintree with most traffic merging at the point where the A12 is only 2 lanes wide. As always we are going to wait for it to become a problem before we even think about doing anything.
Last edited by roadphotos on Thu Jun 24, 2021 12:27, edited 1 time in total.
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SouthWest Philip
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Re: A12 Chelmsford to A120 Widening Scheme

Post by SouthWest Philip »

The absence of provision for the new section of the A120 between the A12 and Braintree is something of a concern. Anything less than full freeflow between the A120 to the west and A12 to the east will be a disaster. But I wouldn't put it past HE to just tack the A120 onto the A12 with another dumbbell junction.
Al__S
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Re: A12 Chelmsford to A120 Widening Scheme

Post by Al__S »

Peter Freeman wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 21:35
jackal wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 19:43 ... the fairly substandard intermediate GSJs are demolished and replaced with full size dumbbells ... Overall it's a good design ... The design at J19 (Boreham) is interesting ...
A dumbbell, fully signalised from the word go, with a 90 degree hamburger cut-through? Oh, come on.
Not just fully signalised at the roundabouts however. There's also a staggared walking/cycling/horse riding(?) crossing in the middle of the bridge
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jackal
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Re: A12 Chelmsford to A120 Widening Scheme

Post by jackal »

roadphotos wrote: Wed Jun 23, 2021 20:53 I did here that 14,000 new homes are planned for the Chelmsford to Braintree corridor so without a free flowing A131 to A12 south at the Boreham Interchange and 3 lanes on the A12 Chelmsford By-Pass between Boreham and the 3 lane section of the A130 at Howe Green there's going to be a big pinchpoint with the majority of traffic from the A131 and Braintree wanting to go onto the A12 south. If all of these houses are going to be built then they should be building all this now otherwise we are going to end up with 3 lanes on the A12 from Colchester and a dualled A131 from Braintree with most traffic merging at the point where the A12 is only 2 lanes wide. As always we are going to wait for it to become a problem before we even think about doing anything.
The projections were for some 145,000 AADT on the A12 Chelmsford bypass... more than twice what you should have on a D2 and not actually possible.

A12 A131 Boreham - Copy.JPG

I hope HE/Essex CC are secretly cooking up a D4 improvement or it's going to get very messy. Surely they realise an improvement is needed with the rest of the A12 widening and A131 scheme. Already it's much busier than the sections that are getting widened and that's without the A131.

As for Boreham itself, I think Essex have not revealed what the 'final' design would be, so the above is still the best approximation we have. But there is little realistic prospect of a major improvement to the junction so we'll be permanently stuck with HE's bodge.
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A303Chris
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Re: A12 Chelmsford to A120 Widening Scheme

Post by A303Chris »

SouthWest Philip wrote: Wed Jun 23, 2021 21:18 The absence of provision for the new section of the A120 between the A12 and Braintree is something of a concern. Anything less than full freeflow between the A120 to the west and A12 to the east will be a disaster. But I wouldn't put it past HE to just tack the A120 onto the A12 with another dumbbell junction.
I thought the preferred route for the A120 carried straight on at the Freeport roundabout and went south of Coggeshall joining the A12 between Kelvedon and Marks Tey with a new junction onto the A12.
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Chris5156
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Re: A12 Chelmsford to A120 Widening Scheme

Post by Chris5156 »

SouthWest Philip wrote: Wed Jun 23, 2021 21:18 The absence of provision for the new section of the A120 between the A12 and Braintree is something of a concern. Anything less than full freeflow between the A120 to the west and A12 to the east will be a disaster. But I wouldn't put it past HE to just tack the A120 onto the A12 with another dumbbell junction.
The new A12/A120 junction is part of the A120 scheme, not this one - but yes, the preferred design is another dumbbell.
ABB125
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Re: A12 Chelmsford to A120 Widening Scheme

Post by ABB125 »

Chris5156 wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 12:47
SouthWest Philip wrote: Wed Jun 23, 2021 21:18 The absence of provision for the new section of the A120 between the A12 and Braintree is something of a concern. Anything less than full freeflow between the A120 to the west and A12 to the east will be a disaster. But I wouldn't put it past HE to just tack the A120 onto the A12 with another dumbbell junction.
The new A12/A120 junction is part of the A120 scheme, not this one - but yes, the preferred design is another dumbbell.
Now that the existing J23 south of Kelvedon is going to be removed, surely a trumpet is a no-brainer (since there's no longer any complication due to local access etc)?
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jackal
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Re: A12 Chelmsford to A120 Widening Scheme

Post by jackal »

I don't know that HE will feel bound by the Essex A120 route, which is a bit silly IMO. But yes, a freeflow junction is a must and should be straightforward with this A12 design.
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Re: A12 Chelmsford to A120 Widening Scheme

Post by Jon Waters »

qwertyK wrote: Wed Jun 23, 2021 13:16 I haven't been following this thread too closely, so forgive me if I ask something that has already been asked.

Is there a consensus for opening the new sections as motorways, eg, A12(M)/expressways, like the A14 upgrade was supposed to be? Given that the newbypasses at Rivenhall End for instance would provide a good D2 road for prohibited traffic, buses, pedestrians etc I can't see what the objections to designating the road a motorway would be. With the Rivenhall section bypassed, there is little excuse for the rest of the A12 not to be a motorway, or at least, the A12 north of Chelmsford. It seems quite ludicrous that such an important road has had such little investment, and the main road from London to the eastern ports has no motorway designation.

However exiciting this new scheme may be, I wish HE would just fix the appalling road surfaces around Chelmsford and Margaretting. It's a mix of concrete and asphalt and there are massive potholes that are just unacceptable for such a major road.
Margeretting bypass is having its concrete surface replaced with asphalt next year.

Chelmsford bypass is having concrete repsirs done at some point
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thatapanydude
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Re: A12 Chelmsford to A120 Widening Scheme

Post by thatapanydude »

jackal wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 07:31 The projections were for some 145,000 AADT on the A12 Chelmsford bypass...
That is quite something, though I think it would not include the whole bypass as a fair chunk come off at the A130 towards Wickford.

Given the expected AADT increase, I wonder if HE would look at free flowing A12 to M25(N) for London traffic wanting to use the M11 as they have done (are doing) with the A13.
A1/A1(M) >>> M1
Runwell
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Re: A12 Chelmsford to A120 Widening Scheme

Post by Runwell »

You've also got the appalling dumbbell A130/A12 link at Howe Green, throttling the A130(N) to A12(N) movement for miles at both ends of the journey, and often blocking the northern arm of the junction for any direction. Ironically, ECC/County Route have just placed a 'Queues Likely' sign on the A130, about a mile before the junction. Just a decade or so late.
Last edited by Runwell on Thu Jun 24, 2021 21:12, edited 1 time in total.
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