THE county's notorious A12 – once dubbed Britain's worst road – is to get a £1.6 billion upgrade that will make it almost entirely motorway standard.
Following decades of campaigning, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin announced on Monday, as part of a £15 billion national roads project included in the Government's Autumn Statement, that the busy stretch will be widened to six lanes between the M25 junction at Brentwood and Colchester.
It follows repeated calls by Essex County Council highways boss Rodney Bass, Chelmsford MP Simon Burns and Witham MP Priti Patel for widening, including a 2008 county council and Chronicle campaign for improvements.
The Department for Transport says work on the A12 in Essex could cost up to £1.6 billion.
Commuters have embraced the news but also greeted it with some scepticism, concerned the plan is merely a "General Election trick".
"This is something we have been campaigning for ever since I was elected on to the county council in 1997," said cabinet member for Highways and Transportation, Cllr Rodney Bass on Monday, who recently pledged £100,000 a year of taxpayers' money to reintroduce A12 police patrols.
"Nothing could be more important for Essex than triple-laning the A12 – the transportation backbone of Essex.
"I am delighted that the campaign which I have led from ECC has been so strongly supported by Priti Patel MP and Simon Burns MP and has now led to this announcement."
The plans state the A12 will be widened to six lanes entirely between the M25 and Chelmsford, tackling such areas as the four-lane section at Ingatestone where traffic bottlenecks as the lanes merge from three into two on either side.
The road would also be widened to six lanes between junction 19 at the Boreham interchange in Chelmsford to the A120 at Marks Tey, and also along the Colchester bypass.
It also includes upgrading the Brook Street roundabout at Brentwood, where the M25 meets the A12, by adding dedicated left-turn lanes from the A12 which means traffic does not have to stop to continue onto the motorway, bypassing the roundabout completely.
Chelmsford MP Simon Burns, who met with the Secretary of State for Transport, Patrick McLoughlin in April this year to discuss the proposals, said: "This is fantastic news.
"The A12 is frequently troubled by congestion and road safety issues and I'm delighted that the government is putting in measures to enhance road safety on the road."
Conservative Witham MP Priti Patel said: "The investment package the Government has committed to will mean better transport links through greater road capacity and will help support the creation of more local jobs."
No time scale has been given for a completion date, but the Government has promised to start spending money on all the nationwide projects, which includes building a tunnel at Stonehenge, by the end of the decade.
After the announcement, Green Party leader at Essex County Council and Braintree local highways panel member James Abbott raised fears homes and businesses would be demolished to make way for the widening. He also attacked the Government for not hosting a consultation on the subject.
The Rivenhall resident said: "There is no clear timetable for the work that we have yet seen and the costing sounds optimistic."
In response, Mr Burns added: "In the bit of the road I'm really familiar with, from the M25 to Boreham, the only houses are a few by a bridge by Brentwood. I don't think any houses are under threat.
"They're entitled to their view but we need to get Essex moving."
