The ghostly Essex bridge that leads to nowhere and no-one knows much about
There are dozens of bridges across Essex's widespread road network so it is unlikely that they are going to jump out at you unless someone purposefully points one out. But there is one bridge in Essex that has a rather bizarre history and unique factor to it.
If you drive down the A120 eastbound from Colchester you will eventually pass Elmstead. Close-by is a bridge that has been constructed but is incredibly pointless as no vehicles can pass over it.
This bridge does not serve a road, does not connect to any local routes, was not built to be an official pedestrian right of way and has no clear sign to identify it. Looking at it from above using sites like Google Maps even shows it to be slap-bang in the middle of fields and farm land.
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The bridge was dubbed "eerie" by local councillors in the 2010s. It stands above the A120 as a reminder of the unfinished work on Essex's highways.
"Had the spare road been built, it would have allowed residents on the east side of Colchester to access the A120 and beyond," said the Auto Shenanigans YouTube channel. "Instead, to access the A120 you've either got to mission through Colchester itself or head through the small villages using the local roads to access a roundabout in a random location [near Cowey Green]."
If you take a close look at the bridge you would be excused for thinking it was constructed to go alongside some future housing developments perhaps. When looking on Google Maps you can see where the entry and exit slip roads were intended to be on the A120 itself.
Nowadays the strangely shaped 'slip roads' are more likely to be used as lay-bys for motorists desperate for a rest on the road. You can use satellite aerial images to see where the road would have gone if it was built.
A large gap between trees shows the precise route carved for motorists to travel along had the bridge been completed fully. It's a strange structure that's made even weirder by the fact that even Highways England don't know when it was first built.
National Highways are unable to say when exactly the bridge was built too. It's likely the bridge was built soon after the A120 became a fully-fledged A-road in the 1970s.
Even though there are no walkways to connect the bridge to anything either side, there is a path alongside the road. The ONS has now dedicated it as a marked footpath although that clearly wasn't the intention of the bridge initially.
Grass and moss have grown up through the concrete as seeds have blown in and settled in cracks over the years. Highways England say they still carry out inspections to make sure the road is safe, but there are no plans to ever use the bridge in motion.