The A12 is a major road in Eastern England. It runs north-east/south-west between London and the coastal town of Lowestoft in the north-eastern corner of Suffolk, following a similar route to the Great Eastern Main Line until Ipswich. A section of the road between Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth became part of the A47 in 2017. Between the junctions with the M25 and the A14, the A12 forms part of the unsigned Euroroute E30 (prior to 1985, it was the E8). Unlike most A roads, this section of the A12, together with the A14 and the A55, has junction numbers as if it were a motorway.
The 52 miles (84 km) section of the A12 through Essex has sections of dual two lanes and dual three lanes, with eight changes in width between the M25 to Ipswich. It was named as Britain's worst road because of "potholes and regular closures due to roadworks" in a 2007 survey by Cornhill Insurance. The A12 is covered by Highways England's A12 and A120 Route Management Strategy.
Starting just north of the Blackwall Tunnel, where it connects end on to the A102, it heads north through Bow and Hackney Wick, then north-east through Leyton and Romford, then into Essex, passing Brentwood and Colchester. In Suffolk, it passes Ipswich and Saxmundham, then follows the coast through Lowestoft before entering Norfolk, passing through Gorleston-on-Sea and ending at Great Yarmouth. In February 2017, the route was renumbered between Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft to become the A47, so the road now terminates at the Bascule Bridge south of Lowestoft town centre.
History[]
The A12 was formed in 1922 as part of the Great Britain road numbering scheme, and initially the route went from Stratford to Gallows Corner along the present A118 road before continuing to Great Yarmouth. This section in London was rerouted to run on Eastern Avenue by the mid-1940s, and extended to follow the current route from Blackwall Tunnel along the East Cross Route, (previously the A102(M) & A106), the M11 link road in 1999.
The route from London to Essex has long been important, with Old Ford being the location of an ancient Celtic crossing of the River Lea. The route was altered slightly by the Romans who created a paved road from London to Colchester, which was part of Inter V on the Antonine Itinerary, and parts of this were used by a turnpike road, the Great Essex Road. The crossing of the Lea moved to its current location at Bow around 1110 when Matilda, wife of Henry I, ordered a distinctively bow-shaped, three-arched bridge to be built over the river. A map from 1766 shows a route from London to Lowestoft which follows much of the current A12.
The "Ipswich to South Town and Bungay Turnpike Trust" was established in 1785, operating between Ipswich and Great Yarmouth. The trust was wound up in 1872 following the arrival of the East Suffolk Line which was fully operational between the two towns in 1859. Following the demise of the Turnpike trust, responsibility reverted to parish responsibility until the new county councils took over in 1889. [[null|link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:London-Harwich_1766.jpg%7Cleft%7Cthumb%7C300x300px%7CJohn Gibson's 1776 map of a road from London to Great Yarmouth. The original route of the A12 mostly ran on this alignment, particularly the Roman Road from London to Colchester.]] A new section of the A12, known as the "M11 link road" or "A12 Hackney-M11 Link Road", was built in the early 1990s in the face of the major M11 link road protest and finally opened in October 1999. The section of road had originally been proposed in 1903 in a Royal Commission on London Traffic. A public inquiry had been held in September 1961 and a further three public inquiries, a Parliamentary Bill and a High Court challenge had been required before the work started.
Initiated in 2000, the London to Ipswich Multi-modal study reported its conclusions late in 2002.
In 2008 improvements were made to the junction between the A12 and the M25 to increase slip-road capacity, in particular for clockwise M25 traffic turning north onto the A12, and to ease congestion on the Brook Street Roundabout (serving the M25, A12 and local Brentwood traffic as the A1023).
The bascule bridge in Lowestoft was built in 1972, and was refurbished in spring 2008.
Essex County Council carried out its own inquiry into the road in 2008. Work on a £12.4m scheme for the a new junction on the A12 at Cuckoo Farm, Colchester adjacent to the Colchester Community Stadium started in December 2009. It was promoted by Essex County Council who prepared plans in 2001. and received funding from the Community Infrastructure Fund. It opened on 16 December 2010.
The section of A12 between Brentwood and Ipswich is classed as a major trunk road, managed by Highways England. The section between Ipswich and Lowestoft was de-trunked in 2001, with control passing to Suffolk County Council. This section is primarily single carriageway.
In 2011, at Junction 33 (Copdock Interchange) the junction was widened and improved to ease the increasing traffic flow along the road. Works ended in 2012. A widening of the section from Chelmsford to the A120 junction near Colchester is proposed with a start date in 2023/2024 and expected to complete around 2028.
Bypasses[]
The Eastern Avenue was built in the 1920s as a bypass for the section between Romford and Ilford, meeting what was the A11 at Leytonstone. It was numbered A106 until the 1930s when it became part of the A12.
The 5-mile (8 km) long Brentwood bypass was opened in November 1965.
A bypass for Chelmsford was first included in the roads programme in 1968. Draft orders for the southern bypass were published in 1974, however the public inquiry in 1975 suggested that the government should re-examine the appropriateness of a "central route" and the government delayed the road. In 1979 the government announced that it would proceed with the southern dual two lane route which opened in 1986.
The Wickham Market bypass opened in July 1976, providing a much needed improvement to avoid the narrow, one-lane wide section of road through Wickham Market. link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wickham_Market_A12_Bypass.jpg|thumb|Wickham Market A12 Bypass Ipswich's "Southern by-pass" via the Orwell Bridge was opened in 1982. This section, when first numbered, was part of the A45 and later designated as part of the A14.
The Martlesham bypass (previously known as the Kesgrave and Martlesham Bypass) was completed in 1987/1988 as was the Saxmundham bypass.
A white paper, Roads for Prosperity, published in 1989, proposed to widen the Chelmsford Bypass and the section from Hatfield Peverel to Witham to dual 3 lane; it also proposed widening the section from Saxmundham to Lowestoft and from Wickham Market to Farnham to dual 2 lanes. It also included a 'new route from the M25 to Chelmsford' as a dual two lane road following the proposed route of the M12 motorway.
The Department for Transport published Trunk roads, England, into the 1990s in May 1990 which included ten proposed developments for the A12 between the M25 and Lowestoft including the M12 motorway between M25 and the Chelmsford bypass, Chelmsford bypass widening and improvements on the sections from Hatfield Peverel to Marks Tey, Four Sisters to Stratford St. Mary, Martlesham to Wickham Market, Wickham Market to Saxmundham, the bypass around Saxmundham, Saxmundham to south of Wrentham, South of Wrentham to Kessingland and the Lowestoft relief road.
A public inquiry in the "Saxmundham to Wickham Market bypass" was held in 1995 but this road has not been built.
M12 motorway[]
During the 1940s, there were plans for a motorway between South Woodford and Brentwood, initially dubbed Radial Route 7, which later became the M12 motorway in the 1960s. This would have run from the North Circular Road in London, at the base of the current M11 motorway, joining the A12 north of Brentwood. The North Circular was to be upgraded to motorway-standard as part of Ringway 2 and be designated as the M15 motorway. The M11 was to have provided a motorway standard road into central London past Ringway 1, terminating at the Angel in Islington. The M12 motorway was never built, although the junction of the M11 with the North Circular was designed to accommodate it.
The scheme was revived in the late 1980s, and extended the northern section to the A12 near Chelmsford. Plans for the M12 motorway were withdrawn in March 1994, following a review of the trunk roads programme.
Route[]
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Route_of_A12.png|thumb|250x250px|Route of A12 from OpenStreetMap
A12 (Numbered junctions) | ||
Northbound exits | Junction | Southbound exits |
Essex | ||
M25, Brentwood A1023 | 11 (M25 J28 – Brook Street) | M25, Brentwood A1023 |
Brentwood A1023, Mountnessing B1002 | 12 (Mountnessing Marylands) | Brentwood A1023, Mountnessing B1002 |
No Exit | 13 (Trueloves) | Ingatestone B1002 |
Margaretting | 14 (Furze Hill) | No Exit |
Chelmsford A414, Margaretting B1002 | 15 (Webb's Farm) | Chelmsford A414, Margaretting B1002 |
B1007 | 16 (Stock Road) | B1007 |
A130, Chelmsford A1114 | 17 (Howe Green) | A130, Chelmsford A1114 |
A414 | 18 (Sandon) | A414 |
Stansted Airport, Sudbury, Braintree A130 (A131) | 19 (Boreham) | Sudbury (A131) Chelmsford A138 |
Hatfield Peverel | 20a (Hatfield Peverel South) | No Exit |
No Exit | 20b (Hatfield Peverel North) | Hatfield Peverel |
Witham B1389 | 21 (Lynfield Motors) | No Exit |
Witham B1389 | 22 (Coleman's) | Witham B1389 |
Kelvedon B1024 | 23 (Kelvedon South) | No Exit |
No Exit | 24 (Kelvedon North) | Kelvedon B1024 |
Braintree, Stansted A120, B1408 | 25 (Marks Tey) | Braintree, Stansted A120, B1408 |
A1124 | 26 (Colchester West) | A1124 |
Colchester A133 | 27 (Colchester Central) | No Exit |
Colchester (North) | 28 (Colchester North) | Colchester (North) |
Harwich, Clacton A120, Colchester A1232 | 29 (Ardleigh Crown) | Harwich, Clacton A120, Colchester A1232 |
Suffolk | ||
B1029 | 30 (Park Lane Birchwood) | B1029 |
East Bergholt | 31 | East Bergholt |
Capel St. Mary | 32a (Capel St. Mary South) | Capel St. Mary |
C475 London Road | 32b (Bentley Longwood) | C475 London Road |
London, Ipswich A14, A1214 | 33 (A14 J55 – Copdock Mill) | End of concurrency with A14
Road signposted as A14 to A14 J58 & As A12 to Lowestoft |
London[]
The A12 starts just north of the Blackwall Tunnel at a junction with the A102 and the A13. From here to past Ipswich (including the entire section through London) the road is a dual carriageway. North of the junction, the A12 heads northwards as a 2/3 lane dual carriageway mostly at street level. This stretch of road is known as the Blackwall Tunnel Northern Approach. This stretch ends at the triple-layer interchange with the A11 at Bow Road where it becomes the East Cross Route. This is mainly a 3/4 lane dual carriageway built mainly on flyovers and underpasses and was built in the late 1960s, previously called the A102(M). The road turns North Eastwards at the unfinished Hackney Wick Interchange where the carriageways split and the northbound carriageway has a right hand entrance. When the London Ringways plan was being proposed, a motorway (North Cross Route) was to end here and the M11 was meant to extend from its current terminus on the A406 through this junction and to Angel. The A12 heads to Lea. The section from the Lea Interchange to Leytonstone, also known as the M11 Link road, was built in the 1990s in the face of a major road protest. During this work the old section as far as Wanstead was rebuilt as a dual carriageway. Prior to that, the A12 started at the Green Man Roundabout at Leytonstone, and was single carriageway west of Wanstead Underground station. It now has an underpass at that roundabout, which again is a junction with the old A11. East of Wanstead, the A12 runs roughly due east. It is known as Eastern Avenue, then Eastern Avenue West and Eastern Avenue East, built in the 1920s as a bypass for the section of the Roman road from Colchester to London running through Ilford and Romford (today's A118). The eastern end of the Eastern Avenue is Gallows Corner in the London Borough of Havering, just east of Romford. The junction also marks the start-point of the A127 Southend Arterial Road, also 1920s vintage. At the roundabout, an extemporised two-lane flyover still provides priority for A12 eastbound to A127 traffic (and vice versa). However, the A12 now veers roughly north-eastward, because it starts to follow the course of the Roman road; the Romans started building this road from Colchester, their original capital for the province. However, the 2.5-mile (4.0 km) stretch from Gallows Corner to the junction with the M25 motorway, called Colchester Road, is still perfectly straight. The M25 junction is number 28; it also marks where the A12 crosses the boundary from London to Essex.
Essex[]
Originally, the A12 followed the route of the Roman road closely and so was fairly straight, but there are now several town bypasses, so the road through Essex now has several meanders. The A12 formerly went through Brentwood, Mountnessing, Ingatestone, Margaretting, Chelmsford, Boreham, Hatfield Peverel, Witham, Kelvedon, Copford, Stanway and Colchester, but these are all now bypassed, and the A12 is a dual carriageway with mostly grade-separated junctions for its whole length in Essex.
It is this stretch of the A12, particularly between Chelmsford and Colchester, which has led to the poor reputation for surface quality of the A12. This is mainly for its bumpy or potholed surface, mostly due to worn concrete surfaces. In an ongoing process these sections are being relaid with tarmac, however some sections including the Kelvedon bypass, and between Copford and Stanway have yet to be resurfaced.
Built in 1982, the A12 Colchester bypass provides an uninterrupted dual carriageway where the national speed limit of 70 mph applies. Before 1982, the A12 took a route much closer to Colchester itself, and although still a bypass it consisted of urban single carriageways with roundabouts and pedestrian crossings. The old bypass is still in existence – the western half now forms part of the A1124 and the eastern half part of the A133.
Suffolk[]
The Suffolk stretch of the A12 starts with the Capel St Mary bypass. Originally the route from the Northern end of this bypass ran through the villages of Washbrook and Copdock and into Ipswich. When Ipswich's Southern by-pass was built in the early 1980s, the route picked up from the northern Capel St Mary junction (now numbered 32b), to pass to the West of the original line – this allowed the relevant ground works and interchanges to be completed with minimal traffic disruption. The old dual carriageway through Washbrook and Copdock is blocked off at White's Corner and was renumbered to be the C475. A footpath still exists which enables passage underneath the A14. [[null|link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Orwell-Bridge.jpg%7Cleft%7Cthumb%7C250x250px%7CThe A12 (multiplexed with the A14) passes over the Orwell Bridge south of Ipswich]] The old route through Ipswich was renumbered as the A1214 following construction of the Ipswich Southern By-pass. The old route is more locally known by the road names, notably "London Road" to the Town Centre and Woodbridge Road out the other side. The Ipswich Southern By-pass allows the A12 to overlap the A14 to Seven Hills Interchange, 7 miles (11 km) from the Copdock junction, where the A12 reappears and heads North. As the A14 the road passes over the large Orwell Bridge with total length of 1,287 metres. This has a summit at 43 metres above the river giving a humped feel with reduced visibility for traffic. There are at-grade roundabout junctions past BT Adastral Park at Martlesham and around the Woodbridge bypass.
For most of its remaining length through Suffolk the A12 is a mostly single carriageway road, and in many places its speed limit is less than the national limit, for example as it passes through towns and villages. During 2003/2004 some of these speed restrictions were further reduced from 40 mph (64 km/h) to 30 mph (48 km/h). There are, though, a few stretches of dual carriageway between the Woodbridge bypass and Lowestoft (at Wickham Market, Saxmundham, Wangford and Kessingland). This section of the A12 was detrunked in 2001 as part of the Highways Agency's streamlining of its Trunk Road Network. Control was therefore passed to the local authorities. Just south of Blythburgh, the old milestone shows it is 100 miles (160 km) to London. [[null|link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Breydon_Bridge1.JPG%7Cleft%7Cthumb%7C250x250px%7CThe A47 passes over Breydon Bridge to the west of Great Yarmouth, close to where the A47 and A12 originally met.]] The A12 ran through Lowestoft for about 5 miles (8 km) on urban 30 mph (48 km/h) limited roads. However, as of June 2006, the A12 now follows the course of the new single carriageway 40 miles per hour (64 km/h) Southern Relief Road that joins the original A12 at Lowestoft bascule bridge. A further impediment is the harbour bridge, which has three lanes, the centre lane operating as a one-way addition to whichever direction of flow is deemed greater. The presence of these bridge choke points can cause serious disruption to north–south trunk traffic, especially when local traffic is added during rush hours. An adequate bypass for Lowestoft would need to be well to the west, even to the west of Oulton Broad (the body of water), and its route would have to consider the great areas of marshland in that area. As of 2021 a new bridge is under construction in Lowestoft. It is due to be designated part of the A12 on its completion in early 2024, carrying traffic onto the existing A1117 northern relief road (which will also become the A12) to the A47 north of the town.
Norfolk[]
From February 2017, the A12 no longer reaches Norfolk as it terminates in Lowestoft at 52°28′26″N 1°45′02″E. Before February 2017, From a point just south west of the mouth of the River Yare, northwards to the point where it crosses the River Yare in Great Yarmouth, the A12 followed the route originally used by the railway line from Lowestoft to its terminus north of Breydon Bridge at Vauxhall Roundabout where the A47 previously terminated.