ADVANCE warning has been given of two more weekends of significant disruption on the A13 because of Thurrock Council's road widening project.

This coming weekend, starting at 9pm on Friday, 22 October, the A13 will be closed in both directions between the A1014 (Stanford-le-Hope Manorway junction ) and A128 (Orsett Cock roundabout ) junctions.

The closures will remain until 5am on Monday, 25 October with traffic diverted via the A1013 Stanford Road instead. Buckingham Hill Road will once again be closed while the A13 is shut, meaning further diversions for traffic wishing to access the council's Linford tip.

Once again the council is calling on motorists to minimise the impact on residential areas and not to divert through nearby towns and villages, with non-local traffic asked to use the A127 instead to avoid causing congestion.

The following weekend, (29 October to 1 November) the A13 will once again be closed in both directions, this time between the access to the A1089 (Tilbury Dock Approach Road) and the Orsett Cock junction. In addition, the A1089 northbound link road to the A13 eastbound carriageway will also be closed.

The closures start at 10pm on Friday 29 October and remain until 5am on Monday 1 November with traffic diverted via the A13, M25, A127, A128 and vice versa.

The council says a separately signed alternative route will be available for vehicles which are not permitted to use motorway diversion routes.

In addition there will be some night time closures in midweek. On Wednesday, 27 October and Thursday, 28 October, 10pm to 5am the A13 eastbound will have one lane closed between the A126 (Lakeside) and the A1089 (Tilbury) junction.

The two weekend closures are the latest in a long series of closures which far outnumber the scheduled and projected number of major disruptions promised by the council and contractors Kier when the project started some two years ago.

However, both council and Kier have declined and continue to not respond to numerous requests to explain why their planners got things so wrong. Nub News has been asking the question for several months now.

Last weekend the whole of the Orsett Cock roundabout was closed for the weekend, causing major disruption and congestion on local and village roads.

Many residents have questioned what works actually took place over the weekend, with pictures posted of the roundabout looking deserted and no-one working at various points through the weekend.