A414 Maldon to Chelmsford Route Based Strategy

The A414 is the primary and key strategic route serving transport movements between Maldon and Chelmsford. Currently, traffic congestion and poor journey time reliability is experienced along the corridor with over 15,000 vehicles using the route each day. This situation will be further exacerbated by the significant planned growth in Maldon and Heybridge. Undertaking highway capacity improvements will provide much needed additional capacity along the A414, to ease current traffic flows, but also to provide for future demand facilitating the delivery of growth as identified in Maldon’s draft Local Development Plan. This project provides a package of measures along the A414 between Maldon and Chelmsford, aiming to:

• Enable and facilitate the delivery of growth in Maldon District
• Improve access to the Chelmsford growth area for all users and businesses
• Improve access to Maldon and the surrounding district for all users and businesses
• Improve journey times and reliability for all users (including passenger transport users): through traffic management, capacity enhancements and congestion relief measures
• Targeted safety improvements
• Renew Highway assets

Brief description

The package of works consists primarily of four junction improvement schemes, along with additional maintenance and safety enhancements:

• A414/Spital Road – The scheme consists of widening to provide a dedicated northbound lane at the roundabout and widening of the north and southbound approaches to the junction. The purpose of the scheme is to provide additional capacity to ease current traffic flows and to provide for future demand.
• A414/B1018 (Limebrook Way/Wycke Hill) – The scheme consists of widening to provide two entry lanes on all four approaches to the junction. The purpose of the scheme is to provide additional capacity to ease current traffic flows and to provide for future demand.
• A414/Little Baddow Road/Mayes Lane (Eves Corner) – The scheme consists of providing pre-signals on the minor approaches to the junction to provide additional capacity and improve peak time traffic operations on the primary route (the A414) to ease current traffic flows and to provide for future demand and discourage “rat running” along parallel routes.
• A414 – Well Lane to Eves Corner – Improvements to the current layout will be made through significant resurfacing of the junction and approaches using high PSV stone to increase surface friction (improving braking), re-lining and a review of signing. Resurfacing between Well Lane and Eves Corner will also be undertaken, as this has been identified as a key location along the route which requires improvement, not just planing of the wearing course, but also into the base course to address more structural problems.

£579m of investment to East Sussex, Essex, Kent, Medway, Southend and Thurrock

In total the SELEP Growth Deal with Government has brought £579m of investment to East Sussex, Essex, Kent, Medway, Southend and Thurrock. Over the lifetime of the Growth Deal (2015-2021) we aim to deliver 78,000 jobs and 29,000 homes across the SELEP area, with the Deal set to attract a further £960m of investment into the South East over the six year period.

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