Essex County Council will begin monthly installments for the £100 million northern section of the A130 by-pass 28 days after it is scheduled to open in October 2001.

Payments to design builders CountyRoute over the next 30 years for the 14 kilometre four lane highway between Howe Green and Rettendon Turnpike will depend on traffic movements, but deductions will occur if lanes have to be closed.

County Hall predicts traffic flows to rise within a year or two of opening to over 40,000 vehicles per day and then rising at the same trend as increases in traffic for similar motorways across the county.

Head of finance Sean O'Donnell said: "While forecasts have been made of the expected traffic flows, fluctuations are a risk borne by the contractor."

The hard shoulders, which are the same width as the lanes, have been designed to be able to bear heavy goods vehicles if the carriageways are temporarily closed because of road accidents or repair.

If traffic levels rise dramatically in the future, they could be utilised on a permanent basis, turning the by-pass into a three lane motorway.

The county council will pay approximately 1.26p per light vehicle and 6p per lorry, which could eventually even out at around £1million per month.

County head of finance, Sean O'Donnell said: "These payments are all shadow tolls - the drivers make no payment for their use of the road, and these could be affected by the lack of availability of each lane per kilometre lengths.

"The penalty for lack of availability is also weighted to different times of the day, such that the contractor is discouraged from closing all or part of the road during peak flow periods."

The county council will receive funding towards its 'mortgage' payments from the Government in the form of annual grants over the life of the contract which was signed on October 20, 1999, for 30 years.

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