I swung by and took some photos of the works going on at Sadlers Farm in South East Essex yesterday in advance of the closure of the A13 between the junction and the Pitsea flyover this weekend to demolish the old Church Road Bridge.
The works have been getting some bad press of late due to the traffic queues on surrounding roads as a result of the works and I have got caught up myself in the long queues on the A127 as people avoid the A13. Hopefully this will soon improve as one lane of the strategic link has now opened allowing some of the traffic heading north to bypass the roundabout.
I think the works to finish the strategic link have taken longer than planned and hence works have started to the roundabout before vehicles have been able to avoid it hence the big traffic queues.
The works have progressed a fair bit since my last visit (blog and pics here). Works to the roundabout are well advanced with new kerblines now in place and new traffic islands and signals being installed.
Both Sadlers Hall Bridge and Sadlers Farm Bridge appear to be structurally complete with traffic now using the former. I don’t think it will be long before the latter is taking traffic too.
The new Church Road Bridge is complete and open to traffic which has allowed preparation work to start on the old bridge to allow its its dismantling.
The A13 is due to be closed in both directions from Sadlers Farm junction to the Pitsea Flyover this weekend from 0500 Saturday 28th April to 05oo Monday 30th April. I assume this is for the bridge dismantling primarily but I’m sure they will be taking advantage of the closure to do other works including tie-ins and the like.
All in all the works appear to be progressing well and I guess should be open in their finished form – if not fully completed – in the next month or two.
I have uploaded an album of photos to my picasaweb photo sharing website and they can be found by clicking here. Included below are a selection of the photos which all open to a new window on clicking.
andrew kenyon photography 
There was no need to remove the multi roundabout system. It simply worked. The bypass was required only.
Valid point and I can’t really comment as not directly involved with project. I’m guessing that big roundabout works better with the improvements being made to flow of traffic from/to Canvey in A130 and with reduced remaining flows big roundabout is less daunting maybe for drivers?
What improvements are being made to “flow of traffic from/to Canvey in A130”??
The bypass is joining the A13 to the A130 which leads onto the A127. This is pointless as there are other routes to reach the A127 which don’t require you to go near sadlers farm.
Joe. Thanks for commenting. I’m not directly involved with the project but my understanding is that for traffic coming up the A`130 from Canvey there will be a dedicated slip onto the A13 toward Pitsea and a signal controlled ‘cut through’ of the roundabout for traffic approaching the roundabout on the A13 coming from Pitsea to go down the A130 to Canvey. Traffic flow will but much improved for this to/from route and eased also as most of the traffic will be taken off the roundabout as it will be using the new underpass. Hope that helps. Have a look at the layout drawing on ECC website here.
Spring 2012
Indeed so. No doubting the works are behind what they hoped to acheive and what was put on the scheme boards for the project, and any delay does lengthen the disruption to the travelling public which is regretable. The delays will be attributed to specific reasons (I don’t know what they are) but could include unforseen ground conditions, exceptional weather, design change, supplier difficulties or any number of other reasons. Hopefully the works will be complete enough to ease the congestion further within the next few weeks and local people will soon be able to see the benefits of the works rather than just seeing the inconvinience whilst they are carried out.
This is really informative thanks Andy.
The traffic in this area has always been terrible, and alot of local residents are furious at its current state (as you may have noticed from some commenters), sometimes rightly so however, its taken me more than an hour to travel about a mile almost every day since the first part of the strategic link opened.
Most people would agree that the works seem pointless, because it is infact the Benfleet direction and Canvey links off Saddlers have always been the ones with heavy traffic, and its the chelmsford direction that has received the link. (A similar strategic link to Canvey would have have been the best solution most believe).
Most would argue that the a130 link is pointless, and only been made for easier travel between london and chelmsford olympic venues.
That said, I do think that alot of current issues are because the southbound strategic link HAS NOT opened yet. Since the multi roundabout functionality was removed, all London bound a130/a13 traffic has had to join the now standardised roundabout. Simply meaning, a whole dual carriageway worth of traffic blocking Benfleet and Canvey traffic from entering the roundabout.
I personally believe without a shadow of a doubt, that when the Southbound link is working, the entire roundabout and improvements will be considerably more effective.
Unfortunately however, Benfleet and Canvey entrance/exits will never really improve, because both are single lane A roads (1 through residential area’s), and these will always be the fundamental flaws of this area of road.
Birse have for the most part been great though with what they have done, and I’m personally really looking forward to the works being completed.
Very confusing. Planed route Basildon (laindon) to Leigh joined A13 at five bells finished up on A127! We had to turn right at Rayleigh to get back onto A13 London Rd. laughed all the way. Just glad it was early afternoon and not late at night. Better signs needed before Sadlers Farm.
I did ask a question on the website for sadlers farm, and have been ignored, I said that the slip road from canvey onto the A13 was far too short, and dangerous, you make the turn left at the lights to follow the road round to the left, next thing, you are on top of the traffic, making the inside lane slow down drastically, thus slowing the rest of the traffic (that’s if you can squeeze onto the A13 London bound. Also, coming up to Sadlers farm from Tescos, you go up a hill, and as you come to the lights to head towards canvey you are left with confused drivers knowing which lane to get into to go through the lights round to Canvey. This is because of the white lines that are quite confusing for some people.I don’t understand how things can be left and ignored. and finally, once again, 2 lanes made out of 1 just to end up bottle necking again, (both ends of Canvey way) Things will never change, maybe the house building on Canvey will increase to a quicker pace now? Because Canvey needs more homes, sod the roads, the congestion, the hassle people have to put up with. Great how things have improved don’t you think?