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Transport improvements support major step forward for garden community

18/12/2025
Press Release

Essex County Council says road and rail improvements are vital as thousands more homes are built as part of the Chelmsford Garden Community.

Following Chelmsford City Council’s planning committee approval of two new housing zones and a major new road for the development on Monday evening, the county council has hailed it as a prime example of how an ‘infrastructure first’ approach accelerates housing delivery.

Essex County Council has supported economic growth and high-quality housing development in Garden Communities for almost a decade. In Chelmsford, the council secured £218 million Homes England investment for new infrastructure. This includes Beaulieu Park Station, which opened in October, and the first section of the Chelmsford North East Bypass, which is currently being constructed.

The Garden Community is one of the most significant housing developments in the country, emphasising the importance of putting new infrastructure in place ahead of new housing. This helps ensure residents are well connected to opportunities in Essex and to mitigate the impacts on existing residents.

Transport improvements support major step forward for garden community

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Chelmsford North East Bypass

The planned new Chelmsford North East Bypass, together with the new Beaulieu Park Station, will provide important infrastructure to support planned housing and economic growth to the north of Chelmsford. 

The transformational road and rail upgrade will bring long-awaited improvements to Chelmsford’s transport network and help relieve congestion on local roads in and around the city, enabling easier, more reliable and resilient journeys.

The bypass will also provide easier access to both the A12 and the new Beaulieu Park Station for people travelling from Braintree and surrounding areas, taking approximately 900 vehicles off city centre roads each morning.

Section 1A

Map graphic showing section 1A of the Chelmsford North East Bypass

Chelmsford North East Bypass will be delivered in phases.

The first section of the bypass (Section 1A) will connect with Beaulieu Parkway in the south to the future Chelmsford Garden Community.

It will provide access to both the new Beaulieu Park Station, which is currently under construction and due to open in 2025, and junction 19 of the A12 at Boreham Interchange via the new Beaulieu Parkway Bridge.

To the north, Section 1A of the bypass will join with a new east-west link road (Northern Radial Distributor Road), to be built by developers as part of the Chelmsford Garden Community.

The link road will connect the bypass to the A131 Essex Regiment Way at Wheelers Hill roundabout. Planning approval for the link road was granted in December 2025 and contruction is expected to start in summer 2026.

Once it is built and required improvements to Junction 19 of the A12 at the Boreham Interchange are complete, the first section of the bypass will open to road users, potentially in 2028. In the interim the road is likely to initially be open to buses and emergency vehicles only.

Next steps

Construction of the first section (1A) of the Chelmsford North East Bypass completed in the Autumn of 2026 via a construction contract awarded by Essex County Council to Octavius Infrastructure Limited.

The remainder of the bypass (Sections 1B and 2) is due to be built when financing has been secured and we continue to proactively seek funding for the remaining sections, including potential developer contributions.

Building the bypass in phases and working in conjunction with project partners means we can focus on having the infrastructure in place when it is needed.

Progress update for CNEB Section 1A

Safer, Greener, Healthier - Find out more about Safer, Greener, Healthier changes in Essex

Together with our main works contractor Octavius Infrastructure, we successfully completed construction of the first section (1A) of the Chelmsford North East Bypass.

All civil works are complete with tree planting and landscaping taking place until the Spring of 2027. The road will then remain closed before it opens to users in 2028 following other works required on the road network (see The Bigger Picture below).

The project initially saw a new access track put in place with perimeter fencing along the highway boundary and a new main site compound. As part of this, we laid new mains water pipes and installed a new connection to the mains electricity supply, avoiding the need for water deliveries and the use of diesel generators. This resulted in fewer lorries on local roads and less CO2 emissions.

Major earthworks along with drainage works then took place, including construction of two culverts, which pass under the new road and allow the Boreham Brook tributary to continue to flow, and two new ponds which collect and store rainwater during bad weather and prevent flooding. Road surfacing works followed and footpaths, kerbs, laybys and islands were installed along with road markings, signs and lighting.

At the southern end of the site, we connected the bypass to the existing roundabout on the A131 Beaulieu Parkway while at the northern point a new roundabout, which will enable traffic to join the bypass via a new link road to the garden community, was put in place.

During construction, the site operated under the Considerate Constructors’ Scheme which, following its final audit, gave the project a score of 45 out of 45 after assessing how the scheme respected the community, cared for the environment and valued the workforce.

A selection of images from our works can be seen below. To see the most recent images, you can navigate to the end of the slideshow by using the arrows on the side of the images, or clicking the tabs below the picture captions