Major Chelmsford road plan set to start following funding green light
Essex County Council have provided £38 million to fund major roadworks on the A12.
Major roadworks on part of the A12 are set to begin to help extra traffic ahead of a 10,000 home development being built. The roadworks plan follows a £38m funding package from Essex County Council
It is one of two major road improvement schemes to support one of the most significant housing developments in the UK. The £38 million Beaulieu Access Package, to be agreed at a Essex County Council cabinet meeting on July 31, is set to benefit residents by improving links between the A12 junction 19 Boreham Interchange, the A131 Beaulieu Parkway relief road, Beaulieu Park railway station, as well as communities in Boreham and Beaulieu.
It is also seen as an important investment to support the latest phase of the Chelmsford Garden Community amounting to 10,000 homes – granted permission at a Chelmsford City Council meeting on June 30. The package for Junction 19 has been developed to include widening roundabout exits and additional traffic lanes. Meanwhile roundabout 5 on the A131 Beaulieu Parkway needs to be enlarged and reconstructed in order to accommodate traffic from Chelmsford Garden Community development.
The A12 Junction 19 improvements are scheduled to be completed by March 2029 and Beaulieu Parkway Roundabout improvements are set to be completed by March 2030.
Essex County Council said it stepped in to develop the Beaulieu Access Package with partners as a direct result of the Government cancelling its scheme to widen the A12, which included a planned upgrade of Junction 19.The package is to be partly financed by Essex County Council with the majority of the required funding coming from Government bodies Homes England and National Highways as well as contributions from developers.
Meanwhile, the council continues to deliver the first section of the nearby Chelmsford North East Bypass with construction due to complete at the end of the summer. This is taking place after the council under the previous administration successfully negotiated around £250m of funding, primarily from Homes England, to support the housing development by building both the first section of the bypass and the new Beaulieu Park Station.
Section 1A of the bypass, from General’s Lane to Cranham Road, is the first phase of road improvements to support the garden community, to be followed by the upgrades to Junction 19 and Beaulieu access roundabout, as well as a new road to link the northern end of the garden community with the bypass.
Known as the Northern Radial Distributor Road, it must be built by the housing developers in the next two years to complete Section 1A, and, under plans approved by Chelmsford City Council, the capacity of Junction 19 also has to be increased so it can deal with the extra traffic coming from the garden community via the link road and bypass.
In addition, city council support for 6,250 of the new homes at the garden community is conditional on Junction 19 being upgraded. Once the link road and Junction 19 improvements are complete, the first section of the Chelmsford North East bypass will be able to open to road users. Separately, the council continues to seek funding to build two further sections (1b and 2) which would take the road north to Great Leighs.
Councillor Russell Quirk, deputy leader of Essex County Council, said: “The Beaulieu area has expanded significantly over the past two decades but the road network nearby has not and the lack of infrastructure investment has resulted in huge inconvenience for local people. This was exacerbated by the Government’s decision to cancel the £1bn A12 widening package.
“However, I’m delighted that Essex County Council under the new administration has now stepped in to lead a £38m funding package to bring about significant enhancements to junction 19, works that will now commence in due course”