Essex County Council's £5m for A120 dual carriageway plan

The county council says road is vital to economy and currently gets very congested

Plans to upgrade a road with an 11-mile (18km) stretch of dual carriageway in Essex have received a £5m boost.

The money will fund a Highways Agency design for a dual carriageway link between Braintree and the A12, at Marks Tey, near Colchester.

Rodney L Bass, Essex County Council's cabinet member for highways and transportation, said the A120 was an important route through Essex.

It linked the port of Harwich with Stansted Airport, he said.

"The single carriageway from Marks Tey to Braintree gets heavily congested and is vital to the county's economy," he added.

The county council has called on the Secretary of State for Transport to support its £10m (€12m) bid for European Union funding for improvements to the A120, along the whole length of the route, from Harwich to Stansted.

This bid includes money for a dual carriageway on the Marks Tey and Braintree stretch.