RESIDENTS and motorists in Thurrock - and those drivers who use the A13 to travel east and west - are preparing for a weekend of significant disruption due to the latest weekend closures of the A13 as part of Thurrock Council's road-widening scheme.

There will be a complete closure of the A13 between 10pm on Friday, 3 September and 5am on Monday, 6 September and it is further west than previous closures.

The closure comprises two elements:

The A13 will be closed in both directions between the A1089 (Tilbury Dock Approach Road) and the A128 (Orsett Cock Roundabout).

The A1089 northbound link road to the A13 eastbound will be closed.

Highways England and Thurrock's highways team have co-ordinated and say that traffic will be diverted via the A13, M25, A127 and the A128 (and vice versa) to minimise congestion on local routes through the borough of Thurrock.

A separate diversion route will exist for vehicles that are not permitted on the M25, (such as mopeds) and this will be signed for 'local traffic'.

A significant amount of additional signage will be deployed prior to the closure location to provide advance warning of the closure and encourage road users onto the correct diversion routes.

Residents in Orsett and Horndon have already expressed some concern that they may be inundated with additional traffic as it has been decided that the usual village protection measures will not be installed this weekend.

The highways experts say that the location of the closure means that drivers are less likely to divert through Horndon on the Hill or through the Stanford Road/Buckingham Hill Road junction.

The closure is required to enable extensive road surfacing, white lining, highway barrier relocation and temporary road re-alignment works.