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A127 to be widened at Progress Road to beat the jams

12:30am Saturday 4th July 2009


MOTORISTS are set to be hit by a year of delays when Southend Council starts a £5.2million road widening scheme on the A127.

The Progress Road junction is notorious for rush hour delays as it’s the first set of traffic lights motorists hit on the road when travelling into Southend from East London.

Work is set to begin in July 2010. The improvements aim to cut down on delays by over 25 per cent in peak periods and more during the quieter parts of the day.

Anna Waite, Southend councillor responsible for transport, said the preliminary plans would go to public consultation in September and were a major step forward in curing problems on the A127.

However, she warned: “Unfortunately, because we have a tight timescale to spend the grant money which has to be by 2011, I cannot say motorists are not going to suffer delays during the construction work of a major project.

“We will do everything we can to ensure these are kept to a minimum and our engineers are already looking at ways in which this can be achieved.”

She added: “Improving this junction will mean better journey times for residents, visitors and, importantly, business users. Less queueing means less pollution as well.

“We cannot expect companies to invest in Southend when the first junction in the town is so poor.

“The new scheme will address this and I hope give people confidence we are determined to take road improvements in the district seriously.”

Southend Council has gained a grant of £4.7million from the Government’s community infrastructure fund for the work and the council is adding £500,000 to bring the total to £5.2 million.

The council is also confident cash will be available for plans to remove roundabouts at Cuckoo Corner and Victoria Circus and replace them with traffic lights.


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Your Say YourEcho

SARFENDMAN, Rayleigh says...
6:20am Sat 4 Jul 09

Maybe I cant see this but surely the A127 has a volume of traffic that flows rather like liquid until it reaches a blockage in this case Progress Road. Unplug and it flows sweetly until the next blockage which will be Kent Elms and then The Bell and Cuckoo Corner and so on. You can throw money at the existing problem but it doesnt solve the main issue. The Rayleigh Weir was the bottle neck a few years back and now it's been shunted down to Progrss Road. The expectation of this road work will not cure the issue of moving traffic smoothly to Southend only simply move the traffic flow problem to a different location. Anna Waite is right in that a lot of problems will be cured but only around Progress Road area and not as I fear in The Kent Elms area. I suppose doing something is better than nothing but I'm not convinced.

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472, Southend on Sea says...
8:38am Sat 4 Jul 09

When is this mad woman going to stop wasting money. Two lanes to three, then back to two which will cause jams and then another set of lights to allow buses to cross the 127 where those junctions were closed years ago to avoid accidents, then back to the new 50mph average limit.A total waste of time and money as was her mad cap idea to change the Plough junction at Westcliff, which turned out exactly the same as it was before.We have now heard that another one of her schemes in Stornoway Road Southend, to install raised tables, (humps) and her favorite, Yellow lines, which hardly slow people down because they are so slight, is going to cease half way through the first road (Stornoway), because the council has run out of money as it is costing more than they thought it would.Great planning. Progress Road will continue to be a nightmare.

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x2k, Southend on Sea says...
10:22am Sat 4 Jul 09

Not entirely sure how the work at Progress Road will make that much of a difference, but I would guess this will include some of the SERT stuff we heard about recently, as there was allegedly going to be a park & ride in that area.

The stupid thing about the way grants work is that if the work isn't carried out, the government will take the money back from the council. They wouldn't allow it to be spent on anything else.

So, perversely, not doing the work would be a waste of money :-\

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Don South, says...
10:24am Sat 4 Jul 09

Whenever I used to travel along this stretch of road and the traffic lights had failed - there was no jams - the traffic flowed freely! I always knew when there was no traffic lights as there was no tailback!

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PJR, Basildon says...
2:39pm Sat 4 Jul 09

wasn't a secondary reason for the cameras and the reduced speed limit on the A127 that it would help to reduce congestion when teh road becomes 40mph? Another back down, another waste of money. usless!

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x2k, Southend on Sea says...
9:29pm Sat 4 Jul 09

PJR wrote:
wasn't a secondary reason for the cameras and the reduced speed limit on the A127 that it would help to reduce congestion when teh road becomes 40mph? Another back down, another waste of money. usless!
The pointless (money-spinning) average speed cameras were forced on us by Essex County council, conveniently ending at our borough boundary.

Thanks Essex.

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Nebs, Westcliff-on-Sea says...
1:44am Sun 5 Jul 09

Charge cars £5 to enter the borough. The congestion will be removed, and we can all have lower council tax.

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fletch12107, southchurch says...
6:09am Sun 5 Jul 09

Sack Anna Waites,take away all restrictions from Southends Roads and leave it to the motorist to self govern.

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stanleys mummy, southend on sea says...
9:12am Sun 5 Jul 09

I applaude you fletch 12107! that has got to be the best idea yet, that women is as guilty for wasting public money on nonsense ideas as the M Ps are for claiming for second homes! she should be sacked and made to remove all the rediculous yellow lines and humps in roads that are cleary not working! restore this town to the car freindly place it used to be, and who knows, things may even flow smoothly again!

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x2k, Southend on Sea says...
12:11pm Sun 5 Jul 09

I'm guessing you're joking, otherwise that would destroy the tourist trade and actually push council tax up to compensate.

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cris300, southend says...
6:15pm Sun 5 Jul 09

quite dont really get this. whats wrong with having to sit in your car for a while.what a waste of money.anna waites must use this route to get to and from work,that i get !

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wotsit, southend says...
9:52pm Sun 5 Jul 09

What about a policeman with a whistle. He could see where the problems are and adjust the flow of traffic accordingly. Its got to be cheaper than 5.2 million.

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Little Susie, Southend-on-Sea says...
10:50am Mon 6 Jul 09

**Sighs** This is going to force me to find a new job closer to home ealier than I expected. No way am I driving from Southend to Tilbury every day when this monstrosity begins!

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Ian from Southend, says...
4:18pm Mon 6 Jul 09



Here we go again. Cuckoo Corner was at least kicked into the stupid cloud cuckoo land bin.

If Progress Road junction is widened it will not improve overall flows. Bellhouse Lane will be the new bottle neck.

Spend our cash on properly thought out schemes and not headline grabbing schemes.

It also worries me that the Council is rushing to spend the money. Statutory Undertakers services will require diverting, this takes co-ordination, time and considerable money. Does to Council know these detailed costs (diversion works undertaken by monopolies BT, EDF etc) and how long they will take, not cheap or easy to sort out.

A rushed job is a recipe for cost overruns and works running over programme……..…
.

And we will still be queuing to get into town but this time upto the next junction, that why I choose to take a train to work. Cars equals queuing. Make road space and cars fill it. Check out the new A130, now big queues at the A12 junction where none existed before.

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guygrim, LEIGH-ON-SEA says...
6:25pm Tue 7 Jul 09

I this project is an absolute waste of money, it is going to be hell while the work is going on and I don't think it will make the traffic on the road any better.

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