Transport corridor works between stations and town centre to begin in Harlow
General / Sat 7th Jan 2023 at 12:03pm
ADVANCED works on the new Harlow North to Centre Sustainable Transport Corridor are due to begin between Burnt Mill Roundabout and Harlow Town Centre this month
Connecting the new Gilston development with the train station and town centre, the corridor along the A1019 is a key part of the transport infrastructure being delivered to make it easier for people to travel sustainably in the future.
Funded as part of Homes England’s £172million investment to support the Harlow and Gilston Garden Town programme, the work will see the creation of segregated walking and cycleway infrastructure and a rapid transit bus lane, providing services into and from the town every few minutes.
The advanced works, taking around two months, will see the removal of a number of trees, vegetation and scrub along the planned footprint of the scheme in order to provide the required space ahead of construction and for the diversion of utilities. As part of these works, a number of unsuitable, diseased and dying trees will also be removed.
To replace and supplement the greenspace a substantial tree planting scheme is planned as part of the main works, with an increased number of semi-mature trees due to be planted and a 5-year maintenance plan in place to ensure they become established. Landscaping is also planned along the route to create areas of habitat and bio-diversity, while also creating a nice environment for pedestrians and cyclists.
Councillor Lesley Wagland OBE, Cabinet Member for Economic Renewal, Infrastructure and Planning at Essex County Council said: “Over the coming years Harlow will see significant growth and it’s critical we support this with the required transport infrastructure which meets targets set for sustainable travel.
“To do this we have to make it easier and simpler to leave the car at home. The new sustainable transport corridors will do this, providing safer, segregated walking and cycling infrastructure and high-quality bus rapid transit, providing consistent shuttle services every few minutes.
“But we also want to create a nice environment, and ensue that open space is maximised, which is why we are not only looking to replace any trees which need to be removed, but actually increase the number, ultimately creating a green avenue along the corridor.”
Robert Halfon, MP for Harlow, added: “I am proud that Harlow is a growing town, with more and more people choosing to call Harlow home. As our town expands, it is important that we ensure sustainable transport options are available to everyone, improving access to our town centre and regional transport links whilst also protecting our local environment and cherishing our green spaces.
“The works along the A1019 in Harlow will deliver sustainable travel for everybody in our town. Upon completion of the works, there will be new walking, cycling and bus lanes to reduce traffic congestion and improve safety for all road users.
“I am also pleased that the works continue to prioritise our green spaces. Whilst some tree removal is required to begin the works, once completed, the number of trees will increase with significant improvement to the green corridor along this route.”
Councillor Russell Perrin, Leader of Harlow Council, said: “Improving road and transport connections across Harlow is absolutely vital, particularly as part of the Harlow and Gilston Garden Town. These works will allow for a key sustainable transport scheme connecting Gilston, the train station, the town centre and other key areas in the town. They will increase sustainable transport options such as new walking, cycling and bus routes and benefit existing residents, helping to make the town a safer, greener, healthier and more sustainable place to live and work.
“We are working closely with Essex County Council to ensure these works are carried out as smoothly as possible. Whilst some trees are being removed to enable the works, these will all be replaced with semi-mature trees with long-term maintenance plans to ensure they flourish. More trees will be planted than removed and a number of trees being removed are diseased, dying or affected by ash dieback. The nearby Town Park will not be impacted. No trees from the Town Park or the row of trees along the boundary of the park will be removed. These works will actually enhance the natural environment and there will be other landscaping improvements along the corridor.
“This is another major step in improving road and transport connections across the town, following the opening of the new M11 junction 7a earlier this year.”
For further details about the sustainable corridor please visit https://www.essexhighways.org/harlow-sustainable-transport-corridors
peter henegan
2023-01-07 12:45:54
Whilst recognising that projects of this nature eventually enhance the town, I can't help feeling that maintaining the existing infrastructure like cycle tracks and roads has a far more immediate effect. First Avenue (Velizy), one of the roads that appears on the artwork is getting more and more like a rutted farm track
Theman
2023-01-07 13:07:05
So reducing the road from dual carriage way to single carriage way and bus lane is going to improve traffic flow and make transport better! What planet are they living on? This stretch of road is gridlocked as it is most days, and some how I think turning it into single file traffic is not going to improve things. I live in the Potter street area and it is now easier to drive to Epping and sometimes Chelmsford than it is to drive to Harlow town centre on a weekend. I tried cycling to the town,but my bike was stolen when I was in the shops. I tried the bus, but spent most of the day waiting for it. I tried walking, but couldn’t carry my shopping the 2 miles home. So it looks like out of town shopping for me. As an aside are the planners aware that congestion, stop start motoring and long traffic queue’s all add to pollution and CO2 emissions, where as free flowing traffic does not.
Matt
2023-01-07 13:48:30
I would like it to be made easier to walk between Harlow Town station and the college. At the moment it's not very pedestrian-friendly.
Floppy finn
2023-01-07 13:48:35
Well said theman, I was thinking exactly the same!! It will get worse, these clowns have no idea. Roundabouts will be blocked & hold the buses up anyway. I spend a lot of time in Stevenage, a town similar size to Harlow, no bus lanes, duel carriageways & a lot less traffic!!
Glenda G
2023-01-07 13:51:56
Harlow was a beautiful town many years ago and we had everything here and also lots of green space but there is more and more homes being built and we are livingoser and closer to eachother and haveno privacy anymore. Harlow is the town where i was born and have lived here all my life and that is nearly 60 years, but harlowhas been ruined and also i should think there is an extremely large number of people living here that dont know anything about our town at all and probably dont care. It just seems as if this once lovely town has lost its identity.we are overloaded with people and the car situation spiralled out of control a number of years ago. Harlow has been ruined.
Charlie
2023-01-07 14:55:38
So which bus company are going to provide these wonderful new frequent links to the Town centre. Not Arriva that's for sure, as they can't provide a decent service in the rest of the town as it is. And who wants to wait around in the cold and wet for a bus that does not arrive. Anyone who thinks that motorists will leave the car at home and use public transport is living in cloud cuckoo land.
rasp
2023-01-07 17:14:25
Who the hell thinks that by providing new walking, cycling and bus lanes is going to reduce traffic congestion....When are they going to sort out Harlow's roads and road signage and where is our new hospital... Bunch of fools.
Harlow driver
2023-01-07 17:18:14
This is hilarious!!!!! There's about 5 cars on the road in this video, the designer has obviously never travelled in harlow!! And everything is still single lane. Or goes from 2 lanes to 1. There's at least 2 cars on average per household nowadays. Harlow was built in a time where there was maybe 2 cars per street! And yet the roads remain the same. Why do we have bus lanes when I don't ever see a bus use a bus lane. Sitting in a line of traffic for hours on end when there's a perfectly good lane not being used next to me is extremely infuriating! Make it dual carriageway before you expand this town anymore! Idiots!
Nostradamus
2023-01-07 17:22:52
The plan down the line, is to send the A414 traffic eastwards instead of into the town centre. Not so green because as well as ramming tons more traffic by Terlings and through the back gardens of Pye Corner this will trash the ecology of the Stort Valley River by driving a raised road culverted barrier across the bottom of the Valley, create a greater risk of flooding and sewage discharges into Harlow homes. In addition to this diverted traffic , the plan is to add all of the construction traffic and that from Gilston Estate homes into the route across to River Way. This will gridlock Edinburgh Way and lock up traffic at the Mark Hall roudabout as it conflicts with all of the traffic from j7a, that from the new homes development along Gilden Way and that from J7. Great plan for a disaster. Add to that all of the traffic heading for the new out of town not in Harlow Hospital. Obviously the residents who wish to visit the town park can cycle down but the rest of cycling network is fragmented and in poor condition so the rest of us won't benefit: never mind the whole project has been designed to benefit the developers and enable East Herts and Herts Councils meet their housing targets and at the cost of Harlow, the Stort Valley and the environment.
novoman
2023-01-07 17:32:30
As published by The Woodland Trust and we have already seen around the town planting hundreds of twigs, young saplings simply fails to replace the mature trees being felled. In other countries mature trees are not felled but actually moved and successful replanted when development takes place to do anything other is just greenwashing to save developers money at the cost of the environment. How Harlow Councillors have been totally suckered by Herts and Essex Councils and developers is beyond belief: none of these proposals benefit Harlow residents, our quality of life or the environment.
David
2023-01-07 17:56:10
'Sustainable Transport Corridor' - It's a poxy bus lane!! - Trees chopped down for a bus lane
Jim
2023-01-07 18:26:07
It does not matter what they propose, the fact remains it will all get even worse. Got flats/apartments going up at Wych Elm and by the train station and there will be more to come. Got too many traffic lights holding up traffic by Sainsburys and towards the station which needs to be looked at. And would all this mean we will get decent roads, not roads like you would expect in the jungle. First Avenue is shocking, especially from Burnt Mill School to the town centre. Like driving a rally course avoiding the holes in the road.
rasp
2023-01-07 18:33:34
Exactly Jim, spend more time looking to miss holes in the road than whats happening around you but that is not dangerous enough is it.
Luke Burton
2023-01-07 23:02:16
Utter joke. So they will make the Sainsbury's roundabout going up towards the town a single lane? What's the point in having a roundabout with fewer than 2 lanes? Also, more of these silly lets-suddenly-turn-a-lane-into-a-bus-lane lanes. This is a daft scheme.
Peter
2023-01-07 23:50:47
Where are all the extra School places, where are all the extra dentists, where are all the the extra doctors, where is the new hospital, you simply can't keep building homes without the relevant infrastructure
David Forman
2023-01-08 00:16:57
New terrestrial laser scanning research of 835 trees in 2015 in woodlands owned by Oxford University has shown Above Ground Biomass (AGB) that stores carbon is 1.77 times greater than current modelling. The 1968 Bunce model is biased towards smaller diameter trees, whereas in Wytham Woods 50% of AGB was in less than 7% of the largest trees (stem diameter more than 53.1 cm). This leads to their conclusion: "This complements findings in the tropics that large trees contribute disproportionately to above-ground carbon stocks." So move mature trees, not cut them down! See research at: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2688-8319.12197
Theman
2023-01-08 10:13:26
Maybe we should all register our cars as taxis. We could then use the bus lanes. If they ban taxis from the bus lanes we could sell our cars and buy mini buses instead. Simples
Neale Biscoe
2023-01-08 12:57:57
A £172 million pounds!!! - at the moment they can’t even fill in the hundreds of potholes that we all try to dodge!! Try actually sorting out the priorities for us local people, who, by the way pay for the wages of these so called planners?! It’s an absolute joke, and regardless of Public opinion, just do what they want to do anyway. Over the next 10-20 years of roads and building taking place, it’s going to be a nightmare! Beautiful countryside being built on and our fantastic wildlife being driven out! Very sad…..
Neale Biscoe
2023-01-08 12:59:33
A £172 million pounds!!! - at the moment they can’t even fill in the hundreds of potholes that we all try to dodge!! Try actually sorting out the priorities for us local people, who, by the way pay for the wages of these so called planners?! It’s an absolute joke, and regardless of Public opinion, just do what they want to do anyway. Over the next 10-20 years of roads and building taking place, it’s going to be a nightmare!
Susan
2023-01-08 13:23:57
I agree with Peter’s comment, you can’t just concentrate on the ‘roads’ Harlow is so over populated and the lack of infrastructure is appalling. The new hospital is hit and miss as to whether we will actually get one at all. Healthcare facilities are virtually nil, schools are inadequate, dentists are few and far between, GP’s are still struggling to return to normality ( whatever that is) I am a Gilston resident living in Pye Corner, we have several new villages being created in and around Gilston which will see the population grow by several thousand, literally on the doorstep of Harlow. This work being carried out to improve bus lanes and encourage safer walking has no benefit to Gilston (currently) as we have no buses in Gilston, traffic is already horrendous through the village and I have no idea how long it will take me to get to Harlow from where I live and what’s more the road through the village is a 30mph road which motorists constantly struggle to adhere to and there is no pedestrian crossing in the village. The planed work will make living in Gilston a nightmare and when they start building the new villages it will be unbearable. It is sad that we are given no consideration when it comes to government targets or our quality of life at present not in years to come.
David morton
2023-01-08 15:24:33
Why not improve the roads we already have!!! Ridiculous idea to spend millions on new roads when the ones already in place are in such bad condition, I find myself looking out for potholes rather than looking for oncoming traffic when driving, where's robert Halton?????
Nicholas Taylor
2023-01-08 16:54:26
Robert Halfon like his Party has always supported the development to the north of Harlow.
Kim Oconnor
2023-01-08 19:04:38
Mr halfon showed an interest when we fought to save the river stort from destruction, but was only just an interest in the end.
Nicholas Taylor
2023-01-08 19:12:54
Crocodile tears again Kim. Working hard for Harlow or was it East Herts Council?
Edna graham
2023-01-08 19:47:41
When is the council going too take notice of the people. We need a dual carriage way right through the town keeping the traffic moving.no more bus lanes or cycle tracks.mend all the potholes and cut the grass in summer our lovely town looks like an an kept garden.
Kim Oconnor
2023-01-09 09:39:58
In the end yes Nicholas, sadly it was fake tears.. we booked canal ability to show him the damage, that will be done to the river stort. We handed over 6,000 signatures against it, to heartford council, they didn't want to be seen out side with us, we had to go in. Every thing was polite, and nicey nicey.. but I saw right through it. Harlow had no interest in talking... yes I believe they all pulled together, they all knew before hand which way this was going. This is why I don't believe in going into partnership with others, the people of our town ,, don't stand a chance.. we are sadly neglected, when you have more voices ,then just our own council to answer to. I hope and prey that I don't see this destruction to our river stort in my life time. And if I do, I will be the first to stand in front of bulldozers, and I dont think I'd be only one.
Theman
2023-01-09 15:32:58
Clearly the council is not acting in the residents interests on this. They are doing what they think is best for us and it says as much in this article. “ “The works along the A1019 in Harlow will deliver sustainable travel for everybody in our town. Upon completion of the works, there will be new walking, cycling and bus lanes to reduce traffic congestion and improve safety for all road users” in other words stop using your cars and get on your bikes. This is not democracy!. Also part of the original Harlow plan was that all the main roads would be converted to dual carriageway at some point in the future to alleviate congestion. That is whey there is so much green around them. In Stevenage they converted the roads, in Harlow they did not and the results are plain for all to see.
TonyB
2023-02-25 17:16:51
Everyone seems to miss one major factor; the M11 was built in the wrong place. Traffic is just linking up M11 and the A414, and the A10; the problem is Harlow is in the way. Often you hear of a crash on the M11 or M25 and then see the roads in Harlow jam up with traffic. The nearly empty junction 7a was only built for Hertfordshire traffic. The problem is Harlow is in the way. After the Conservatives put the M11 in exactly the opposite position to the one Sir Frederick Gibberd was promised to save money (£10 million) by destroying his new town plan, they went on to compound their mistakes. The Conservatives chose the cheap option again rather than link the M11 directly with the A414 and run it through Hertfordshire. At a Places for People exhibition, Harlow residents were told there would be another bridge at Burnt Mill. One for traffic into Essex and one into Hertfordshire, something that should have been done decades ago to take the pressure off of the junctions in the town centre and Burnt Mill. Looking at all of the pedestrian crossings around the roundabouts, has anyone else noticed how easy it would be for protestors to bring the town to a halt? So they want to go ahead without the bus service and without the new bridge, but we must be grateful to the Conservatives for the complete congestion of the town centre.
john gilligan
2023-03-22 19:43:35
not one person has wellcomed the road layout. more than half are asking for the existing roads to be pot hole free. consequently the planners will re,look at this lol.
Kim Oconnor
2023-03-23 15:46:51
They should spend the money on the roads not spend the money on destroying our tress, its a heart breaking disgrace, what's happening here in Harlow. Do you really think most cyclists, want to cycle road a concrete jungle, no No, we go to the country side, we go to the river.. get real, I speak as a life time cyclist.
Angela Kurton
2023-03-24 07:59:11
There’s a feeding frenzy of tree felling across the town at present. Not just in the area implied in this January release. We are in the same position as Plymouth, Sheffield and Southend. Our incompetent local politicians (all amateurs at the end of the day) are responsible for the devastation of our local environment, and heftily degrading our biodiversity as a side effect. We need some transparency on what’s going on, and we need exact numbers and locations of what both the local council and ECC are doing. The STC project is directly related the the approvals for the Stort crossings, and yet the environmental impacts within Harlow itself were not even mentioned in either of the two planning meetings. There was a total lack of transparency on the true extent of the impacts as well as avoidance of the subject of mitigation of environmental harms on the Harlow side of the river. The tree felling is extensive, and not confined to the area covered by the above release. There’s a whole raft of separate but interlinked works that have been initiated in a surreptitious way - and this is only the start. Remember that a whole area of woodland by the river, relied on by deer , among other species, is due to be felled at some point soon. We won’t know it’s started until we hear the screaming of the chainsaws. To my mind, the above piece is pure deception. It avoids numbers of trees and precise locations and insinuates that the main impact is on dead or diseased trees, or growth of no intrinsic worth. I’m not satisfied - at all - with releases like this, that do not set out the facts, FIGURES and mitigations clearly and transparently. That do not indicate what is truly happening, and when. What we’ve got here is self-justification, vagueness and greenwash.
Kim Oconnor
2023-03-26 09:42:39
Perfectly put Angela. These trees are not diseased. I just want to make one point, about chopping our trees down. You say no trees in town park , but the year before you done exactly that. The one by pond eara was chopped to a stump, Perfectly healthy tree, that a king Fisher sat on all the time. Now I have not seen that king Fisher since. And this is what will happen, we will lose our wildlife in abundance. You councils, your government, have no foresight. The people here do not want this destruction. We have provided evidence to you councils, that the majority that live here do not want this destruction. But your not interested, you care not for public options. As this act of tree feiling has proved, we are the last to know of what's happening, in our own town. Because your not interested in public options. We find out when work has started. We need to get back to listening. We need to get back to what people who live here want. You can build your unaffordable housing that will not benefit Harlow or the 5, 000 people waiting on homes, that will not be able to afford them. You can build your fancy walk ways and cycle tracks that only go a round town.. You can talk the talk on mental health, while all the time, you take away the very thing that makes us better. You can do all the damage and destruction you want, and you know why, because there's no one to stop you, because you don't listen to the people. Once theses lands are gone there gone for ever, along side with our wildlife habitat s, ecosystem s,the list goes on. You don't want to hear us or see us. Which has been proven. There were alternatives, you were not interested. If it don't make you money your not interested.
32 Comments for Transport corridor works between stations and town centre to begin in Harlow: