FEARS have been expressed that Highways England's plans for a new Thames Crossing route through Thurrock will effectively negate the multi-million pound Thurrock Council scheme to widen the A13 between the Manorway and Orsett Cock roundabout.

The council's scheme, currently running some £30 million over budget and set to be up to a year late in delivery, is being undertaken to allow three lane traffic all the way from the Manorway to the M25 and London.

However, it seems that revised plans by Highways England will turn part of the existing three lane A13 back to a two lane situation - effectively creating a bottleneck.

The Lower Thames Crossing Action Group has been carrying out close scrutiny of the latest Thames Crossing plans and reports: "One of the many things we have uncovered so far from the LTC Supplementary Consultation information, is that there will be an A13 bottleneck created if LTC goes ahead in its current design.

"We are all more than aware of how much the A13 widening project, that Thurrock Council are currently working on costs. Not to mention how much disruption it is causing on our local roads.

"The A13 widening that is currently happening is nothing to do with Highways England. The idea of the widening project was meant to ensure that the A13 is three lanes in each direction between the M25 and the Stanford Junction.

"Details of Thurrock Council's A13 widening project can be found on their website (via the red button below)

"However, if Highways England are granted a permission for the proposed Lower Thames Crossing, with current designs, it would mean a section in each direction would result in a bottleneck section of just two lanes.

"The closest this comes to being shared in the consultation docs is when it is mentioned on pages 54 and 55 of the Supplementary Consultation Guide. It is simply referred to as point 7 – The A13 eastbound has been reduced to two lanes from four lanes, near the Orsett Cock roundabout. This removes the need for drivers to change lanes on the A13. It only refers to eastbound.

"We imagine that HE's reponse when questioned on this will be that it is to do with industry standards of dropping lanes when you have a sliproad leaving, and then it is added again as the next sliproad joins the main route. We will be quizzing them on this, and more, once the HE info events begin!

"However, we have to say that we don't consider an A13 bottleneck a great improvement, and will be having our say on this as one of many many points in our response!"