Vital road improvement schemes backed as garden community develops

Two major road improvement schemes to support one of the most significant housing developments in the UK have been given the go-ahead by Essex county councillors.

Chelmsford Garden Community is creating 10,000 homes together with new business spaces, schools, open spaces, community and health facilities to the north east of the city.

Crucial to the development is the delivery of associated transport improvements, in particular upgrades to the local road network with an ‘infrastructure first’ approach.

As a result, the Beaulieu Access Package will see upgrades to Junction 19 of the A12 at Boreham Interchange and the access roundabout for the new Beaulieu Park Station (Roundabout 5 Station Approach).

The Beaulieu Access Package will deliver necessary capacity and safety enhancements after the government cancelled its scheme to widen the A12, which included a planned upgrade of Junction 19.

At a cost of £38 million, 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 (1A) 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 successfully negotiated £250 million 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. It is 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. 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.