A12 reopens after 18 months of roadworks

Colleagues from National Highways and Morgan Sindall celebrated the reopening of the Margaretting bypass on Thursday

A £75m project to resurface part of a major road has finished after 18 months.

Work to reconstruct the Margaretting bypass on the A12 in Essex started in February 2023 and the road reopened on Thursday morning.

Simon Amor, head of scheme delivery at National Highways, said the new road is "much quieter and much smoother" and will last for decades to come.

The scheme should have finished on 24 June this year costing £65m, but it was delayed because of "difficult ground conditions".

Resurfacing work started in February 2023

Over the past 18 months, 11.4 miles (18.3km) of road, which was originally built about 50 years ago, has been resurfaced.

Mr Amor told the BBC the new road has been built to last for up to 40 years.

"The old road we were having to repair on more or less a nightly basis, so we won’t be doing that anymore as this road is built for the future," he said.

"I’d like to thank residents and road users for their patience while we’ve done the work."

About 17,000 tonnes of carbon were saved during the project by taking measures like recycling concrete from the road's old surface.