Harlow Renaissance has supported the calls for a new motorway junction to be provided for Harlow on the M11 to the north east of the town. We believe that this is necessary to support future housing and employment growth as well as tackling current congestion levels and the town’s existing infrastructure deficit.
The initial design of the new town located the industrial areas to the north and west of the town, with the town centre also in this quarter, partly because of the proximity of the railway line but also because of the then plans to construct a new road from London to Cambridge skirting the western and northern edges of Harlow New Town. When this became the M11 it was subsequently built to the east of Harlow. The legacy of this switch has been that a significant amount of industrial traffic has to travel through the town to access the motorway network.
Harlow is already a substantial sub-regional employment centre and even with the decline in its traditional manufacturing sector, it still provides 40,000 jobs. With half of these people commuting into the town each day and a similar number of Harlow residents commuting out of the town, significant pressures are placed on the existing road network. A town of Harlow’s size and its important role as a sub-regional employment and services centre requires two direct links to the motorway to operate effectively, aside from the plans for future growth.
In 2008, Essex County Council commissioned a traffic movement study in and around Harlow. One of the findings of this was that in the morning and evening peaks, 25% of all car traffic leaving the town turned north onto the M11. This demonstrates that a new junction to the north-east of the town would take a large amount of traffic away from the already congested Junction 7.
To provide the evidence base required to secure the necessary funding for a new motorway junction, Essex County Council has commissioned a study from its contractor Mouchel, which will be complete by the spring of 2011. This will identify:
- Potential locations for a new junction and connecting routes into Harlow
- Engineering feasibility
- Outline design of a scheme
- Cost plan
- Impact of implementation through a cost benefit analysis
Following completion of this work, and assuming that it identifies a positive case for the new junction, Essex County Council and Harlow Council can begin to discuss funding opportunities with developers and with the Department for Transport. We are confident that through this mechanism a new junction (Junction 7a) will be provided on the M11 to support the growth of Harlow.