Agenda item
Orsett Cock/A13 Junction - Verbal Update
Minutes:
The Interim Assistant Director Regeneration
and Place Delivery introduced the report and stated that the
Manorway junction, Orsett Cock roundabout, Daneholes junction,
Marshfoot junction, and the Asda roundabout were all at risk of
being impacted once the LTC was operational. He added that during
the construction of the LTC Corringham, Horndon, Orsett, and
Chadwell St Mary were also at risk of becoming rat runs. He moved
on and explained that the A13/Orsett Cock junction would form part
of the wider LTC/A13/A1089 interchange, but the Orsett Cock was a
critical junction for existing communities and future local plan
growth sites. He stated that the LTC could result in significant
traffic flow increases on the A13 east of the LTC, as models were
predicting an increase of 15% during morning rush hour, and a 24%
increase during the evening rush hour. He explained that growth in
cross river traffic via the LTC would be the most significant cause
of the increase in traffic on the A13, as the LTC could increase
the number of cross-river trips by 50%. The Interim Assistant
Director Regeneration and Place Delivery stated that National
Highways (NH) were currently undertaking micro-simulation traffic
modelling to fully assess LTC impacts and develop proposals to
improve the Orsett Cock junction, which had never been undertaken
before. He stated that the Council were currently waiting for
National Highways (NH) to complete further modelling, and the
Council were asking for access to this model, rather than receiving
outputs. He added that the Council had taken the opportunity to
observe traffic patterns within Orsett during the temporary weekend
closures of the Orsett Cock, which had taken place during the
construction of the current remodelling of the junction. He stated
that data had been collected for 22 days between Thursday 19 August
2021 and Thursday 9 September 2021, which had included two weekend
closures, and had shown that the future closures of the A13 and
Orsett Cock due to LTC construction would be likely to have
significant impact on the village due to increased traffic. He
added that the future operation and improvements for the junction
would need to consider the future local growth aspirations and
measures to promote walking, cycling and bus usage.
The Interim Assistant Director Regeneration and Place Delivery
moved on and explained the impact that the LTC would have on the
Manorway junction, which was also critical for local communities as
well as access to London Gateway and DP World. He added that DP
World and London Gateway has recently undertaken improvement works
at the Manorway junction as part of their Local Development Order,
as the Freeport status at the London Gateway was expected to
generate additional freight and other traffic to the port sites. He
stated that there was also a risk that the Manorway junction would
be used as an alternative route to avoid the Orsett Cock junction,
in order to reach the Port of Tilbury (via A0189) by u-turning at
the Manorway. He stated that junction improvements had not yet been
considered by NH although microsimulation traffic modelling was due
to take place. He mentioned that a further predicted effect of the
LTC was a substantive increase in traffic flow on B1420 and
Southend Road. He stated that re-routing due to delay the Five
Bells junction of the A13/A176 passed through residential areas in
Corringham that were not appropriate for an increase in
traffic.
The Interim Assistant Director Regeneration and Place Delivery
summarised and stated that the LTC scheme utilised local roads and
junctions, such as the A13/Orsett Cock junction as part of their
scheme, which would have an impact on these critical local
junctions. He stated that the LTC used local road capacity and
would impact on the Council’s ability to deliver local
economic growth aspirations, such as the Thames Freeport, and
emerging Local Plan. He added that NH were considering trunking the
A13 up to the Manorway junction to bring it into the strategic road
network, and the Council were asking for clarification as to this
process. He stated that junctions across Thurrock, such as the
Orsett Cock would likely face a number of temporary closures and
significant disruptions during the construction of the LTC, which
could severely impact local communities as traffic could be
diverted through these towns and villages. He added that the
Council were urging NH to fully assess the impact of the LTC on key
local junctions; develop and commit to junction improvements where
necessary; commit to local traffic calming and environmental
mitigation measures in local villages such as Orsett; and develop
and deliver an exemplar customer engagement strategy during the
construction period.
The Chair thanked the Interim Assistant Director Regeneration and
Place Delivery for his presentation and questioned who would be
responsible for the decision to trunk the A13 up to the Manorway
junction. The Interim Assistant Director replied that it would be
up to the Department for Transport (DfT) to make this decision, but
the Council would be fully engaged in the process. The Thames
Crossing Action Group (TCAG) Representative stated that the traffic
flow at Orsett Cock had changed, and no explanation had been
provided by NH. She asked if an explanation as to the traffic flow
within the diagram could be provided. The Interim Assistant
Director replied that the diagrams of the Orsett Cock roundabout
provided by NH could be confusing and explained that Thurrock were
in the process of requesting the model, so officers could input
their own data and form their own conclusions.
Councillor Byrne questioned why there would be a 15% traffic
increase in the morning peak and 24% traffic increase in the
evening peak, and queried why more people returned to Thurrock in
the afternoon. The Interim Assistant Director replied that these
figures depended on the profile of the peaks, as for example much
of the morning traffic left before 7am and much of the afternoon
traffic was involved in school runs. He stated that for the local
road networks peak traffic occurred between 8am and 9am, but for
the strategic road network the peak occurred between 7am and 8am
and this could affect the outputs of the model. The TCAG
Representative questioned if peak times at junctions such as the
Orsett Cock and Manorway were different to traditional peak times
due to the port shift times. The Interim Assistant Director replied
that the times of the port shifts did have a large impact on the
traffic at these junctions. He stated that traffic modelling only
provided a general overview of traffic in an area and could not
accurately predict different scenarios or real-life traffic flows.
He stated that the Council were urging NH to add additional
contingency into the model as this would improve the model’s
resilience and be able to better predict traffic flows during
congestion. He added that traffic models also struggled to predict
induced traffic flows, which was a situation whereby people used
the road because that option was available. The TCAG Representative
questioned if the traffic model included traffic due to port
growth. The Interim Assistant Director replied that port growth
traffic was not being directly modelled, but sensitivity tests were
being run to model this scenario. He stated that NH were currently
updating their traffic model and re-running the model, and the
Council would be able to see outputs from this in June. He
mentioned that it would also take time for the Council to be able
to review and analyse the model outputs before Development Consent
Order (DCO) submission. The TCAG Representative asked if the public
would be able to see the outputs from the traffic model data. The
Interim Assistant Director replied that the new traffic model
outputs would not be made available during the next proposed
consultation as NH believed that there was no significant
difference between the old and new model, so did not require
consultation.
The Resident Representative stated that East Tilbury and Linford
had not been included on the diagram and felt that the A13/Orsett
Cock/LTC junction would have a large impact on these communities.
He stated that these towns were also impacted by the railway line,
and future LTC construction traffic and this needed to be included
in the Traffic Assessment. The Interim Assistant Director responded
that he would ask the team to take a look at the traffic impacts in
East Tilbury and Linford. The Chair queried how the London Resort
plans on the Swanscombe peninsula might affect the LTC, and if this
was being taken into account in the updated traffic model. He added
that the proposed Bradwell B site in North Essex may also have
effect on traffic on the A13 and LTC. The Interim Assistant
Director stated that NH would only have to take the London Resort
and Bradwell B schemes into account once they had submitted their
DCOs and therefore became a material consideration. He stated that
NH were currently analysing the effect of the London Resort on the
LTC through sensitivity testing. He explained that there was
currently lots of uncertainty and speculation regarding the London
Resort which made it difficult to incorporate into the model. He
added that the DfT provided their predicted traffic growth figures
which were included in NH traffic model, although these were
generalised and did not focus on specific junctions or local
developments. The Chair felt concerned that there were a number of
DCOs being proposed for the area that were not included in traffic
models. The TCAG Representative added that the traffic models only
predicted traffic flows during normal conditions and could not
account for traffic during incidents. She felt that due to the cost
of the project and inconvenience on local traffic flows, the
proposed LTC was the wrong project in the wrong location. The
Resident Representative added that NH were not including other
local works into their traffic models which would have a negative
impact on the local area. The Interim Assistant Director stated
that the NH were proposing that the LTC scheme would be the
greenest construction scheme in the UK, but the Council felt
concerned that this would increase the budget envelope for the site
and could concern the Treasury. He added that Thurrock Council
would continue to ask these questions to NH, the DfT and
Treasury.
Councillor Byrne stated that the Orsett Royals football team had
had to sell their pitches to NH due to the LTC scheme, and although
they had found new pitches in Corringham, they required additional
funding for goals, fences and other infrastructure, otherwise the
club would have to shut down. He questioned if NH would be able to
help with this funding. The Interim Assistant Director replied that
NH could help with this type of funding and asked Councillor Byrne
to email him outside of the meeting for this process to begin. The
Resident Representative questioned if any progress had been made on
the East Facing Access project on the A13 at Lakeside. The Interim
Assistant Director replied that this project was still progressing,
and officers were considering the acceptability of different
designs as the site was relatively constrained. The Chair
summarised and stated that the Task Force remained concerned
regarding the LTC and junction connectivity with the Orsett Cock
and Manorway junctions.
Supporting documents: