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There are two major projects presently at an early stage of development.
1. Ipswich Northern Route
This would be a Suffolk County Council scheme reminiscent of 90s plans for a northern bypass, with vague talk of construction in 10-15 years if money can be won from central government. A recent study suggested the following indicative routes:
2. A14 improvements
SCC are apparently trying to get A14 improvements, including a new flyover at Copdock, into RIS2:
Ipswich Star wrote:Suffolk County Council highways bosses told a meeting for borough councillors and members of the Ipswich Vision board that the government agency responsible for trunk roads needs to invest heavily on the existing major road network around the town.
The county backed up the calls of the Suffolk Chamber of Commerce which launched its “No More Delays on the A14” campaign two years ago.
Around Ipswich the most important – and expensive – problem is caused by the Copdock Mill interchange between the A14 and A12.
The county also wants to see improvements at Wherstead, Nacton, and Seven Hills junctions. The total cost of these projects could be half a billion pounds.
At Copdock Mill, where there are frequent rush-hour delays and regular accidents that can cause serious congestion, there have been regular calls for major work to ease the pressure on the junction.
One option could be to create a flyover allowing traffic between the A12 and the A14 to the east of Ipswich to avoid the roundabout and causing congestion there – vehicles heading into town along London Road would continue to use the existing roads.
The county is drawing up a list of projects that it is hoping to persuade Highway’s England to include in its next five-year investment programme from 2020-2025.
It's unlikely that £500m would be spent on junction improvements alone, so perhaps it's also hoped to provide additional capacity at the congested Orwell Crossing?
For a comprehensive and reasonably future-proof solution, what the A14 really needs round there is an offline bypass, possibly a motorway, to separate long-distance traffic from local traffic.
It could run from near the A12 junction at Bucklesham, across the Orwell on a new bridge, with a junction for the A137, and a free-flow junction for the A12 some way to the south of Copdock, and terminate at the A140 junction near Needham Market.
Copdock is an awful junction! I've actually used the old A12 to completely bypass it when heading south.
What Ipswich needs, as others have said, is a proper northern bypass - the A14 is so full of Felixstowe's lorry traffic that even shorter journeys take longer than they perhaps should.
Orwell Bridge closed again today bringing the whole of the Ipswich area to a standstill, also a couple of years ago there was an improvement scheme at the A14/A12 junction which widened the slip roads from 2 to 3 lanes, unfortunately at the same time they got rid of the free flowing A14 west to A12 movement, this has only made things worst at this junction as all the traffic now has to wait at the traffic lights at the end of the slip road, this now results in A12 traffic queuing back onto the A14. This is a classic example of so called improvements actually making things worst.
Suffolk CC have high hopes for Copdock - possibly even full freeflow:
There are calls for this to be turned into a full grade-separated junction, allowing traffic to travel east, west, south, or into the heart of Ipswich without having to stop at a roundabout.
Work to rebuild this junction would cost considerably more than £100m and would cause considerable disruption for many months while engineers were working there – but Suffolk County Council cabinet member for transport James Finch said it was vital for the future of Suffolk.
He said: “That is a very large project, but as I have said to ministers before Suffolk is a net contributor to the Treasury – it is one of the most important contributors in the country.
“This is payback time for us. If the Treasury wants us to continue to be prosperous and to continue to make a net contribution then the Department for Transport has to be prepared to invest in major projects like this.”
Even off peak Copdock is appalling. It has been made worse for A14 Felixstowe to A12 London traffic by the removal of the former free flow left turn and installation of traffic lights. Reinstatement of the free flow would solve part of the problem. You never used to get solid queueing traffic on the A14 westbound exiting for Copdock before.
In general though, the A14 (much like the A34 and A12) was a dual carriageway built to do the job of a motorway. The congestion on the A14 around Ipswich is worse than a number of motorways getting the smart motorway treatment, in terms of proportion of the day when congestion is an issue.
major maintenance schemes on the A14 between Haughley and Woolpit and between Copdock and the Orwell Bridge; and
a comprehensive feasibility study of the A14 from the M11 at Cambridge to Felixstowe to address remaining concerns about the A14 and the impact of future growth in the county and across the UK.
They're asking for £850m. This presumably includes the massive spend on Copdock mentioned above.
Here's a sketch for a freeflow Copdock. The missing movements between the A14 and A1214 can be provided with a couple of north-facing slips at the A1071 bridge to the north.
According to a friend of mine who lives in Ipswich and works in North East London.
What Ipswich really needs a Northern Bypass linking the a 12 / A 14 in the Martlesham area to the A 14 west of Ipswich which would take a lot of the port traffic away from the Orwell Bridge.
When the Orwell Bridge closed, Ipswich does grind a complete halt and makes my friend swear like a trooper.
jackal wrote:Here's a sketch for a freeflow Copdock. The missing movements between the A14 and A1214 can be provided with a couple of north-facing slips at the A1071 bridge to the north.
A12 A14 - Copy.png
This is the kind of thing that should have been built when they built the A45 bypass. Absolute joke that two major roads do not have a proper junction, either here or anywhere else.
lefthandedspanner wrote:For a comprehensive and reasonably future-proof solution, what the A14 really needs round there is an offline bypass, possibly a motorway, to separate long-distance traffic from local traffic.
It could run from near the A12 junction at Bucklesham, across the Orwell on a new bridge, with a junction for the A137, and a free-flow junction for the A12 some way to the south of Copdock, and terminate at the A140 junction near Needham Market.
If a new offline motorway is to be built how about running it so that it leave the current A14 just after it leaves Felixstowe, have it run in a west north west alignment passing by Sudbury before taking of the M11 after the A11 branches off.
The A11 to the east of Cambridge would become the M11, the A14 around Ipswich could become the A12, with the left over bits of A14 being given an extra digit on the end.
The new road along with bits that already exist around Cambridge and up to the A1 by Huntingdon, including the new bits currently being done would then become the M14.
jackal wrote:Here's a sketch for a freeflow Copdock. The missing movements between the A14 and A1214 can be provided with a couple of north-facing slips at the A1071 bridge to the north.
jackal wrote:As I said: 'The missing movements between the A14 and A1214 can be provided with a couple of north-facing slips at the A1071 bridge to the north'.
e17simon wrote:According to a friend of mine who lives in Ipswich and works in North East London.
What Ipswich really needs a Northern Bypass linking the a 12 / A 14 in the Martlesham area to the A 14 west of Ipswich which would take a lot of the port traffic away from the Orwell Bridge.
When the Orwell Bridge closed, Ipswich does grind a complete halt and makes my friend swear like a trooper.
You've got the B1078. If you're heading between the A14 and A12 from anywhere west of the A140 to anywhere north of about Woodbridge it's quicker to go that way than over the Orwell Bridge, traffic and large vehicles permitting. If they could just recolour the road green that'd be great.
"If you expect nothing from somebody you are never disappointed." - Sylvia Plath
I was back in Ipswich a few days ago when Storm Eleanor closed the Orwell Bridge a few days ago, and as you'd imagine, it was a tad chaotic at rush hour. Those with local knowledge were deciding to go through the town centre rather than follow the A1214 diversionary route, and so you had the more local routes such as Landseer Road becoming congested as well on the eastern side.
On the western side, matters were made worse as the long term closure of the B1067 Bramford Road near to the junction with the A1156 Norwich Road meant that a major route into the town was unavailable. That said however, by about lunchtime, it was busy, but moving. On my journey at that time, we cut through the eastern side using the main local roads such as Cauldwell Hall Road and Sidegate Lane, and by the time we reached the A1214, there was a steady stream of traffic, but it wasn't horrific.
We were actually heading for my uncle, who lives in Hemingstone on the B1078, and it was certainly apparent on the stretch between there and the crossroads with the B1077 at Ashbocking that people were using it as a cut through - there was certainly more traffic on it than usual, including several HGV's, all of which would have probably had to negotiate the narrow section throuh Coddenham.
My cousin said that the advised diversion route is actually the A1120, but obviously that's no good for traffic heading for Felixstowe as it doesn't emerge on the A12 until Yoxford, which is far too north.
A northern bypass would probably be the cheapest option, but if money was not an issue, then surely the best thing would be a tunnel. This could either be next to the bridge to give a Dartford style arrangement, or for a really wild-out-there-not-a-chance idea, perhaps between Harwich and Felixstowe below the harbours.
