12:30am Saturday 4th July 2009
By Geoff Percival
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.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.echo-news.co.uk