A12 Stanway concerns following second crash in a month

The southbound carriageway of the A12 at junction 26 was closed for more than 18 hours from Wednesday to Thursday while emergency barrier repairs were completed.

A single-vehicle crash happened at about 11.30am, causing serious delays for drivers, with some caught in traffic for 90 minutes.

The driver of the vehicle was said to have not suffered from any life-threatening injuries.

On January 8, the road was closed in the same place after another vehicle hit the barrier, leading to emergency repairs.

One driver from Colchester said incidents on the A12 are a “daily occurrence” and another added: “It took me more than 90 mins from the stadium to get off the A12.”

Pleased- councillor Lesley Scott-Boutell positive about ongoing works (Image: Lesley Scott-Boutell)

Colchester City councillor for Stanway, Lesley Scott-Boutell said: “I’m really pleased that nobody was hurt and I’m pleased that National Highways reacted quickly to the incident.

“The work to fix the damaged barrier must be done straight away to protect other drivers and people working on site.

“The works to reconstruct the road are going well as it’s reducing a lot of noise and making the road safer as it was at the end of its lifetime and needed work doing to it.

“I’m pleased the improvements are being made to the road and, in today’s climate, the fact the investment has been made speaks volumes.

“The works are inconvenient to drivers because of the speed limits and barriers, but the repairs had to be done for safety reasons.”

Works to rebuild the A12 between Junction 25 at Marks Tey and Junction 26 at Stanway began in October 2022 and are set to be completed in the summer of this year.

Works- National Highways image of staff working on a road (Image: National Highways)

The aim of the works, costing £36.9m, is to “improve the safety, create a smoother quieter journey, and extend the life of the road to make it fit for the future.”

It was first expected to be completed in early 2024.

National Highways is in the process of removing the concrete road surface and some foundations and replacing it with recycled material and a new asphalt road surface.

A National Highways spokesperson said: “Safety on our network and where work is being carried out is our number one priority.

"Our road layouts are required to comply with strict standards to ensure the safety of drivers and we have taken a number of measures to ensure everyone can pass through our work areas as safely as possible.

“There was a collision at Junction 26 at Stanway on Wednesday, which prompted an emergency closure.

"The crash cushion was replaced and the road reopened by 2am on Thursday.

“Following on from an earlier incident in the same area, we have implemented further measures to reduce the risk of similar incidents.

"These included reviewing the existing signage, applying additional ‘A12’ and ‘A12 J25’ advanced road markings and refreshing existing road markings. These were all in place prior to the most recent incident.

“During yesterday’s barrier repair, road markings were improved and enlarged with additional road studs being added.”