Colchester A12 chaos caused by 'faulty tarmac'

Commuters had to withstand several miles of tailbacks which had been caused by faulty tarmac laid in the early hours of Monday morning.

Now, contractors are rushing to resolve the issue, with National Highways releasing a statement on Monday afternoon to announce the A12 northbound will be closed from 2am until 5am on Tuesday morning.

A statement read: “Between 2am and 5am, the northbound A12 between junction 25 to junction 26 will be closed while contractors resolve an issue with the surface of the carriageway.

“This was uncovered in the early hours of this morning in a section of the outside lane where the carriageway meets the northbound contraflow system.

“For safety reasons the lane has remained closed today ahead of a repair taking place tonight.”

Early problems – a picture shared by Essex Travel News early on Monday morning showed traffic started to build from around 7am (Image: Essex Travel News)

The A12 roadworks, which have been in place for more than a year and will cost the taxpayer £37 million, are not due to be completed until next spring.

But a succession of weekend road closures has caused misery for commuters, and Monday saw problems worsen as a fault with the tarmac laid by National Highways meant only one lane on the A12 could be reopened.

The weekend closure was due to be lifted at 5am on Monday, but Essex Highways published a post on social media at about 7.30am to say the roadworks had overrun.

A second post published at about 10.30am told drivers the second lane of the carriageway would not open for the rest of the day, meaning hundreds of cars were forced to squeeze into just one lane on the northbound carriageway towards Colchester.

The result was a seven-mile tailback and journey times which were increased by 45 minutes as cars crawled along the road – though some commuters said their delays were far longer.

A Twitter post from Essex Travel News confirmed the location of the fault.

It read: “Between junction 25 and junction 26, lane two is expected to remain closed throughout the remainder of the day due to the issues with the road.

“Reports of a 45-minute delay on approach to the lane closure with seven miles of congestion with queuing traffic back to junction 23 at Kelvedon.”

Costly – the roadworks are costing about £37 million, but commuters have been left frustrated by the inconvenience caused by the roadworks (Image: National Highways East)

One Gazette reader said the lane closure added two hours to their journey and caused them to reach Colchester at 10.20am as opposed to 8.15am.

Resident Kenneth Petrie, meanwhile, said: “These closures which are now every day on so many roads in the county are unacceptable.

"The road into my house has been closed for the third or fourth time in recent months. Useless beyond belief.”

Figures from the UK Government website suggest the A12 carried an average of more than 50,000 cars every day in 2022, though National Highways has said the repairs to the road will be beneficial to motorists in the long run.

According to the latest roadworks timetable, there will be a full closure in place on the A12 from Friday, September 22 until Monday, September 25.