Have Your Say On Kent Elms Junction Improvements

March 21, 2016 by Southend Borough Council

Have your say on Kent Elms junction improvements

Friday 18th March 2016

Local residents and businesses are being asked their views on plans to upgrade the Kent Elms junction to better manage current and future traffic levels.

The council’s cabinet approved initial options for the main junction improvements on Tuesday, along with its preferred option for a four week consultation starting on Monday 21st March.

The consultation will be online at https://consult.southend.gov.uk from Monday and interested residents and businesses can visit a public exhibition on the plans at Eastwood Primary School on 11th April (2-4pm for parents/carers of pupil and 4-8pm for all).

Options for a replacement bridge also form part of the councils’ preferred option, with the current footbridge set to be demolished to allow new lanes to be created. Works are planned to start in Summer 2016, with the main construction completed by March 2017.

The preferred option for consultation provides three lanes heading eastbound on the A127 and a right hand lane providing improved capacity through the junction. An additional lane heading westbound would also provide greater capacity, with a new footbridge to replace the current one. Small amounts of land will need to be purchased and utility diversions required to enable this option to go ahead, and negotiations with the relevant partners is already underway.

The consultation follows recent work to build a new Toucan crossing which was completed in December and gives wheelchair-users and those with buggies or mobility scooters an alternative to the stepped footbridge to get to the library and health centre.

Cllr Martin Terry, Executive councillor for Public Protection, Waste and Transport, says: “Our plans for Kent Elms are just one part of a package of on-going junction improvements along the A127 designed to keep traffic flowing, improve crossings and keep the economy growing. Our preferred option has now been approved by Cabinet and we want to know what local people and businesses think about it.

“Improvements at the Kent Elms junction will help to increase capacity ahead of the creation of around 7,000 new jobs expected to be created by the new airport business park in the near future. This builds on our good work already carried out at vital junctions such as Progress Road, Cuckoo Corner and the Tesco roundabout.

“There is no technical requirement to provide a new footbridge and there are many similar junctions that operate without one, but we have already listened to feedback from local schools, businesses and residents and feel that it is appropriate to include plans for a new footbridge in our preferred option for this consultation.”

The majority of the funding (£4.3m) is set to come from Department for Transport’s Local Growth Fund, with final approval of the business case expected in June 2016.

The A127 in Southend in numbers

• Progress Road to Kent Elms – 40,700 vehicles a day (45,200 a day by 2036)
• Kent Elms to Tesco roundabout – 40,100 vehicles a day (49,700 a day by 2036)
• Tesco roundabout to the Bell – 40,200 vehicles a day (55,700 by 2036)
• The Bell to Cuckoo Corner – 32,700 vehicles a day (49,700 by 2036)