A133 Ipswich to Harwich Rd improvements team saves months of future disruption

Excellent progress has been made on A133 Colchester works during these unprecedented times.

Ipswich Road (south) was opened early as piling works were completed ahead of schedule. Harwich Rd (south) is currently closed until the 29th June to allow key construction works to be completed.

All the engineering work on the A133 St Andrews Avenue and Harwich Rd roundabout, to widen the road to two full lanes in both directions, will be finished during the summer as planned.

Work to strengthen the retaining wall at the south-west side of the Ipswich Road roundabout follows on from the piling to join to the Cowdray Avenue rail bridge.

Whilst completing these works, Engineers have found issues with the bridge that will require fixing.

Essex Highways are currently carrying out further investigation work, with a view to completing further remedial measures to the railway bridge. This can be done without the need for further road closures using the existing traffic management around the Ipswich Rd roundabout.

Whilst finding this issue isn’t helpful to the works on site, it is good news that this was discovered now as our project team is best placed to absorb this extra job within the scheme and create the necessary space to resolve this issue without future significant road closures.

Unfortunately, this does mean that we are unable to complete the Ipswich Road roundabout section until the bridge issues have been resolved.

Structures engineers will now carry out urgent investigations and start repair work on the railway bridge, following arrangements made with Network Rail. Depending on precisely what works are required on the bridge, the whole project is expected to be finished, with improved traffic flow through the whole area towards the latter part of 2020. Harwich Road roundabout up to Ipswich Road roundabout is still planned to be completed this summer.