Work on huge dual carriageway to link A120 and A133 in support of 7,500 homes to begin this month

Work on a huge project to link together two major Essex roads will get underway this month. A new road, the A1331, is set to link the A120 and A133 around Colchester once completed to ease congestion in the city centre and help support thousands of new homes on the way.

The A1331 will enable new homes and businesses to be developed to the east of Colchester as part of the "Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community" development, which is being developed as a joint project by Tendring District Council, Colchester City Council and Essex County Council to bring at least 7,500 new homes to the area.

Delivered in two phases, in line with the new development, the first phase of the new A1331 is being funded through the Goverment's Housing Infrastructure Fund and is due to be completed in the spring of 2026, according to the council.

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The A120 runs from Hertfordshire passed Bishop's Stortford, Stansted Airport, Braintree and Colchester before ending in Harwich, with the A133 running between Colchester and Clacton-on-Sea. The councils say the linking of the two roads will enable people to access the A120 and A12 more easily, reducing the need to travel directly into Colchester and helping to manage congestion on smaller roads.

The A1331 will also help to "unlock land to provide housing, business and leisure space". A County Hall spokesman said: "There will be approximately 25,000 new homes built within Tendring and Colchester by 2033, including the new Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community. This development will see 7,500 - 9,000 new homes as well as business, leisure and recreational spaces created over the coming decades.

"Ultimately forming part of the Garden Community, as it develops, the A1331 wIll create easier links to the wider road network, while also providing a connection to the new Colchester Rapid Transport System."

Octavius Infrastructure has now been appointed to deliver Phase 1 of the A1331, which is planned for completion in April 2026. This phase, which gets underway this month, will begin with the construction of a new roundabout on the A133 to the east of the University of Essex.

Works on the new roundabout are expected to take approximately nine months and are currently scheduled to be completed in Spring 2025. To enable the construction works, the eastbound and westbound A133 carriageways will be reduced to a single lane in this area and a temporary 40mph speed limit introduced throughout the construction period.

After the completion of this new A133 roundabout, two additional roundabouts will be constructed further north at Tyre Road and Allen’s Farm. A new 1.8km dual carriageway road will then be built to link these together.