Construction and civil engineering specialist GRAHAM has secured a £124 million contract from National Highways to design and build a critical improvement work to junction 28 of the M25 between the M25 and the A12 in Essex.

The proposals for the scheme are the subject of an application for a Development Consent Order (DCO). The Planning Inspectorate, the government agency responsible for operating the planning process for DCOs has accepted the DCO application on 24 June 2020 for formal examination.

Early design works commenced in winter 2020 and construction work is scheduled to start by spring 2022 (subject to decision on a DCO).

The scheme is located between Brentwood and Romford, on the border of London Borough of Havering and Brentwood Borough Council. Junction 28 is one of the major improvement projects planned within the south east and will provide better access towards Essex and London, as well as connecting Brentwood, Chelmsford, Colchester and Suffolk with London and other key destinations.

Other significant features of the improvement works to be delivered by GRAHAM include:

• A new two-lane loop road with hard shoulder, for traffic travelling from M25
• to A12
• Works on A12 eastbound to maintain existing access to Maylands Golf
• Course
• An overbridge at A12 eastbound exit road to allow the proposed loop road
• to join the A12 eastbound carriageway
• Widening of the M25 anti-clockwise carriageway to provide proposed exit
• road
• A bridge over the M25 anti-clockwise entry road to facilitate new loop road

M25 junction 28 is a heavily used junction which features a roundabout mainly controlled by traffic lights. It is already operating at full capacity, with traffic queues and lengthy delays, resulting in longer and increasingly unreliable journey times for motorists.

Up to 7,500 vehicles per hour currently travel through the roundabout at peak times. With this level of traffic junction 28 is often operating at, or close to capacity, resulting in traffic queues and delays. In recent years there have been a number of incidents, which create additional delays and disruption to traffic along the M25, A12 and local roads.

Traffic in the area is expected to increase by up to 40% by 2037, so without intervention, conditions will continue to deteriorate.

GRAHAM’s appointment follows the appointment of two other National Highways contracts to deliver improvements to Junctions 25 of the M25 earlier this year and Junction 5 of the M2 as part of National Highways' major highways improvement schemes across the South East of England under the Route to Market Regional Delivery Partnership (RDP) framework.

On the award, Dave Brown, Highways Director at GRAHAM, said:

“This is another significant scheme for us to be awarded and last of the three schemes to sign in the package following signing of the M25 Junction 25 and M2 Junction 5 schemes. It is testament to our growing reputation in the highways sector that we have been chosen as contractor for another important improvement scheme in the south-east of England.

Dave added: “We have enjoyed an excellent relationship with National Highways for many years, built on collaboration. By delivering this scheme we’ll be catering for the road’s future traffic demands, increasing capacity and reducing congestion. The improved link to the A12 will also enable development and support economic growth, providing significant benefits to the area.

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