Portfolio Holder for Safer Communities and Item Licensing 09 March 2017 Report of Strategic Director for Commercial and Author Paul Wilkinson Place ℡ 282787 Title Response to the Consultation on the A120 Braintree to A12 Improvement Wards All wards affected but phyiscally Marks Tey and Layer affected This report concerns Colchester Borough Council’s response to the consultation on the A120 Braintree to A12 Improvement 1. Decision(s) Required 1.1 To respond to the consultation on the A120 Braintree to A12 Improvement 1.1 To submit to Essex County Council this report and questionnaire based on section 5 of this report. 2. Reasons for Decision(s) 2.1 The consultation concerns investment in the strategic trunk road network which runs through Colchester Borough. The A120 is essential to supporting competitive economic and housing growth across the borough and region. Colchester has supported study work by the Haven Gateway Partnership articulating the need for the investment and local economic benefits it can bring. The widening has been identified in the Local Plan and this is an opportunity to influence the design to fit with the Local Plan aspirations. 3. Alternative Options 3.1 Not responding is an option, however this is key infrastructure to support growth and the project needs to be supported to ensure that the scheme is included in the national Roads Investment Strategy. 3.2 Selection of an alternative option: ECC presented 5 route options (see appendix A) for the A120 and the choice of option B or C with modification best fits with the growth and strategic role of the A120 and reduction of through traffic in Marks Tey. 4. Supporting Information 4.1 The A120 is between the A12 at Marks Tey and Braintree is currently a single carriageway route carrying approximately 25,000 vehicles per day. The route is characterised by local communities fronting the route, local accesses, junctions with B Roads and rural lanes and is of varying width; down to 6m in Marks Tey. Excepting the Coggeshall Bypass the A120 is straight following the alignment of Stane Street Roman Road. 4.2 For the user the journey time is unreliable and with evening peak speeds being 22mph slower and 14 minutes longer than the free flow conditions. The A120 joins the A12 at Marks Tey junction 25 – this junction is one of the major pinch points that hold up users along the route. The mixed function of the route creates issues with deliveries, waste collection and such like stopping in the carriageway, not allowing vehicles to pass. Over the period 2011 to 2015 there were 172 collisions resulting in 266 casualties. Up to 15% of the traffic is Heavy Goods vehicles and 68% of the traffic is long distance traffic. 4.3 For those living along the route the traffic movements dominate, with poor and narrow footways and limited facilities for cyclists. The close proximity of the road to the dwellings in Marks Tey detracts from the quality of the area. 4.4 The A120 is actually part of the strategic trunk road network managed by Highways England. It is substandard and does not perform its strategic trunk road function especially through Marks Tey. To the east the A120 provides access to the port of Harwich and in the west to Stansted Airport. The route has been the subject of previous studies and inclusion in funding programmes. The improvement to the route has been identified in the Colchester Local Plan adopted 2008 as requiring investment to support growth. 4.5 The Haven Gateway partnership coordinated a campaign to lobby for the development of a solution for the A120 producing the “The Case for the A120 Enterprise Corridor” which set out the inter-relationship between economic growth and improvements to the A120 corridor and how business could benefit. The partnership commissioned “The A120 Economic Study” in 2013 demonstrated that investment in the A120 would improve the productivity of the area by up to £1.3bn (gross value added), through increased employment opportunities through widening the employment pool and improved access to jobs. 4.6 Essex County Council took the decision to fund these design stages for improving the A120 following national design standards. The aim for ECC, following consultation is to select a route and make recommendation to the Secretary of State for Transport in autumn 2017. The expectation is that the scheme will then be considered for inclusion in the next national Road Investment Strategy covering the period 2020 to 2025. 4.7 The consultation material has been made available on line at a120essex.co.uk . During the consultation period 11 public events were organised in the corridor. The 5 options are shown in appendix A. It should be noted that most of the physical route is within the Braintree District, but with traffic reduction benefits to those Colchester Borough communities along the A120 Stane Street including Marks Tey, Little Tey and Broad Green. 4.8 The new route would be developed and constructed to meet the national guidelines for a strategic road as a dual carriageway with grade separated junctions, advanced technology and 70mph speed limit. It would be of a similar quality to the section west of Braintree to the M11 at Stansted. Relationship with the Garden Community 4.9 The area for the potential Garden Community, in the vicinity of Marks Tey, currently straddles the existing A120. Over the long term, this community could grow to approximately 20,000 dwellings with employment and other opportunities. This will help deliver on the Government’s aim to address the national shortfall in housing. 4.10 An objective of the A120 scheme is to support housing and economic growth. Even though the traffic growth forecasts allow for housing growth, the options have been developed independently from the ideas for the Garden Community in the Marks Tey area. This has allowed ECC to focus on developing a highway options but ECC do accept the design could be influenced by a Garden Community and equally, will affect decisions on the location and layout of a Garden Community. Traffic Flows, Growth and Junctions 4.11 The A120 is forecast to carry a high level of traffic in the future - 43,000 vehicles per day in 2026. North of a new junction with the A12, the A12 could carry 110,000 vehicles per day. Currently the new A120/A12 junction is envisaged to be a two level grade separated junction. With Garden Community traffic the design of junctions may need to be large; possibly 3 level grade separation and or include some form of “free flow” slip road arrangements. This would require increased land take in the area of the garden community. 4.12 The new junction with the A12 and A120 could also serve the Garden Community but would be large. The consultation highlighted that the exact location of the new A12 and A120 junction could be located within a 1.5km stretch of road. Colchester Borough Council believes that the junction should be located to optimise the development of the Garden Community. The route could then in part follow the pylon line which runs across the area. This would suggest the junction is further from Marks Tey. The exact scale of the junction and links need further detailed engineering and traffic modelling assessment. 4.13 Essex County Council are closely involved with the Garden Communities proposals and therefore the next design phases will need to take into consideration the potential Garden Communities growth and inform the land requirements. 4.14 At the western end the options either connect back into Galleys Corner or south of Braintree. ECC suggest that either location can technically work with diversion of local connections. Connecting to the south of Braintree extends the length and cost of the scheme requiring a new crossing of the Braintree Witham branch line and the River Brain. Intermediate Junctions 4.15 ECC have sought views on the need and location for an intermediate junction. In traffic management terms it would not be unusual to connect a B road into an A road. Options B and C cross the B1024 between Coggeshall and Kelvedon. A junction with the new road would give these villages better access but without further infrastructure would also draw traffic from the surrounding rural areas through them. 4.16 Rather than have a junction with the B1024 a junction could be provided to serve a potential Garden community with a link back to Stane Street to the east of Coggeshall. Stane Street and Junction 25 Marks Tey 4.17 The options reduce the through traffic in Marks Tey along Stane Street (A120). The through strategic traffic will reroute and use the A12 and through junction 25. There could be opportunities to the change the layout and arrangements of Stane Street and junction 25 to better reflect the new traffic patterns. This could include ensuring Stane Street is not used as a through route, gives greater priority to local movements, public transport, walking and cycling. At the junction ways in which the Marks Tey communities either side of the A12 can be reconnected to each other should be investigated. Selection of an Option 4.18 In considering which option to select the following issues should be considered: • How each option (with modification) can fit with the proposed Garden Community • How each option provide benefits to Marks Tey as result of a reduction in through traffic • How each option provides a strategic route to support the wider growth of north Essex and Haven Gateway • How each options improve the journey time and reliability of the route • How each options fit with the A12 proposals and minimise the widening of the A12.