About the junction
The Army and Navy junction in Chelmsford is a key gateway into and out of the city and is used by up to 70,000 vehicles a day and 72 buses an hour.
The junction consists of a five-arm roundabout, which until 2019 had a tidal flyover that carried one-way traffic (cars only) to and from the A1060/A1114 over the roundabout.
The junction is already operating significantly over capacity during the morning and evening peak times.
As a result, it suffers from severe congestion and bus passengers, pedestrians, cyclists and drivers regularly experience delays. This also results in it being a poor-quality environment for all road users.
The situation is expected to get worse in the future unless we do something differently.
To begin to solve the problems, we cannot keep building new roads and need to instead provide more options for people to travel, encouraging safer, greener and healthier ways of getting around the city, especially for shorter journeys where we want walking or cycling to be the natural choice.
Improvements to the Army and Navy junction are long overdue and various layout options have been developed which, together with proposed sustainable transport improvements, would provide a long-term solution that is an asset to the city.
The design, planning and development of any scheme is still likely to take a number of years and will require funding to be secured.
The Chancellor announced in the 2020 Spring Budget that the project had been approved to proceed to the next stage of development for consideration for funding.
Funding is being pursued from the Government's Major Road Network and Large Local Majors programme, and the Department for Transport (DfT) has agreed to continuing work with us in developing a business case for the scheme.
Despite the ongoing challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the project team is working at pace to develop the right long-term solution at the junction as quickly as possible.