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Essex is quite big. If you don't regularly go there, you might not notice. It doesn't have any cities and it's not famous for taking up a lot of space. But it does have an astonishing array of very big towns, and in between them it has an awful lot of countryside. It's with this in mind that, in recent years, Essex County Council has attempted to help people cover those distances more quickly.

The A120 is part of that strategy. It forms an east-west route across the middle of the county, and links Stansted Airport with Colchester, the port of Harwich and the vital M11 and A12. If you're not from the area you probably won't know it and you almost certainly wouldn't be aware that, in 2003, Essex County Council opened the first phase of their improvement works: 20 miles of brand new dual carriageway, on a completely new line, to replace the existing road between Stansted and Braintree.

There was no fanfare when it opened, but this is, in all but name, the first link of a brand new cross-country motorway: it covers a huge distance (in fact it goes most of the way to linking the M11 and A12 in one shot), has only a few grade-separated junctions miles and miles apart, and even has its own motorway-style rest area near Great Dunmow. This is big thinking for a local authority scheme. And it's a brilliantly fast, smooth ride.

When it opened in 2003 it was hoped that it would soon be extended east on a new line to the A12, and connected to an upgrade of the A130 from Chelmsford to Great Dunmow. Those have not, of course, happened; the first of those schemes was knocked back in a public inquiry and is effectively shelved while the second has never really got off the ground. It's a shame, because Essex really is a big place, and this sort of visionary thinking is a rare commodity.

Factfile

Start	Bishop's Stortford (M11)
Finish	Braintree (A131)
Passes	Stansted
Length	20 miles
Terminates	None
Spurs	None
Meets	None

There are no photos in this section yet.

Exit List

All the junctions and destinations along the route.

Junction		Westbound								Eastbound
(M11 J8)		London Harlow M11 (S) (M25 ) Bishop's Stortford A120 Cambridge M11 (N) Birchanger Green		M11 (M25) B1256		WEST A120		M11		N/A
		1 mile, 3 lanes								1 mile, 3 lanes
		Stansted Terminal Mid & Short Stay Parking Air Cargo								Stansted
		4.5 miles, 2 lanes								4.5 miles, 2 lanes
		Takeley B1256		B1256				B1256		Thaxted Great Dunmow Takeley B1256
		1 mile, 2 lanes								1 mile, 2 lanes
		Rest Area								Rest Area
		2.5 miles, 2 lanes								2.5 miles, 2 lanes
		Great Dunmow B184		B1008				B184		Great Dunmow B184
		5 miles, 2 lanes
		Felsted B1417 Stebbing B1256		B1417				B1256
		3 miles, 2 lanes								8 miles, 2 lanes
		Chelmsford A131 Rayne (B1256) Braintree		A131				B1256		Chelmsford A131 Braintree
		2 miles, 2 lanes								2 miles, 2 lanes
		Witham East Braintree Ind. Est. Business Park B1018 Braintree College		B1018						Braintree College Witham East Braintree Ind. Est. Business Park B1018
		1 mile, 2 lanes								1 mile, 2 lanes
		N/A				A120 EAST		B1256 A131 (A1017)		Braintree B1256 Sudbury Halstead A131 Haverhill (A1017) Colchester Coggeshall A120

With thanks to Clive Jones for information in this section.