Work to remove, reconstruct and replace a stretch of the A12 in Essex giving the carriageway a new lease of life is set to get underway next week.
Starting on Monday 17 October, National Highways will start work on a £37m project to reconstruct and replace the concrete road surface of the A12 carriageway between Marks Tey (junction 25) and Stanway (junction 26), as a part of its nationwide drive to revitalise concrete roads across the country.
Decades of use and hundreds of millions of journeys have left the road in need of vital upgrades, which will improve safety, create a smoother road surface and reduce noise for drivers who travel on this section every day.
The scheme will see National Highways completely remove the concrete road surface and some of the foundations, before rebuilding the road with recycled material and a new asphalt road surface. It’s expected the scheme will be complete in early 2024.
As well as resurfacing the road, the project will also see replacement kerbs installed, the drainage system refurbished, safety barriers replaced, new road markings and new reflective road studs (cat’s eyes).
Karl Brooks, National Highways Programme Delivery Manager, said: “The A12 is one of the region's most important road helping to connect London with Suffolk, a vital route every day for work journeys and home deliveries, visits to friends and family, and the movement of goods and services.
“The road is now in desperate need of upgrades. Once complete, 80,000 drivers who travel on this carriageway every day will benefit from improved safety, a smoother road surface and reduced noise.”
This £37m project follows several concrete road schemes undertaken on the A12 in the previous two years. In late 2020, National Highways made repairs to the road surface between Colemans Interchange (junction 22) and Kelvedon (junction 24), as well as resurfacing the southbound carriageway between Spring Lane Interchange (junction 27) and Eight Ash Green (junction 26) in early 2021.
In late 2021, a further concrete road project saw repairs made to the A12 surface between Webbs Farm (J15) and the Boreham Interchange (junction 19). Later this year National Highways will begin a project to reconstruct the concrete carriageway on the A12 between junction 13 (Trueloves Interchange) and junction 15 (Webbs Farms Interchange).
As a part of the Road Investment Strategy, National Highways is spending £400m in the next three years to improve the quality of existing concrete roads across the country.
Concrete roads make up almost 400 miles (4%) of England’s motorway and major A-road network. Mostly found along the eastern side of the country, in the North East, Yorkshire, East Anglia and the South East, there are also some smaller stretches in other parts of England. Around half of the old-style concrete roads in the East will either have repairs or be replaced during this period, including stretches on the A11, A14, A12, A120 and M11.
For the safety of workers and motorists, National Highways will complete the vital upgrades on the A12 in stages using a two-lane contraflow system:
Phase one will start at junction 25 eastbound and head up to junction 26 working in lanes one and two, with traffic in a contraflow.
Phase two will start at junction 25 eastbound and head up to junction 26 working in lanes two and three, with traffic in a contraflow.
Phase three will start at junction 26 westbound and head down to junction 25 working in lanes one and two, with traffic in a contraflow.
Phase four will start at junction 26 westbound and head down to junction 25 working in lanes two and three, with traffic in a contraflow.
The contraflow system will keep the A12 open during the day at a reduced capacity. Due to the nature of the work, some noise and light disturbance is expected but this will be kept to a minimum.
Work to install the contraflow system on the A12 between Marks Tey and Stanway will begin at the end of the month. This will require three weeks of overnight closures (8pm to 6am) of sections of the northbound and southbound carriageway – full details can be found at: www.nationalhighways.co.uk/MarksTeytoStanway
For more information about upcoming concrete road projects, visit: nationalhighways.co.uk/industry/concrete-roads/
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