M11 motorway

M11 motorway
Road of the United Kingdom
Length	49.7 miles (80 km)
Direction	South - North
Start	London (Woodford)
Primary destinations	Harlow Stansted Airport Cambridge
End	Girton
Construction dates	1975 - 1980
Motorways joined	M25 motorway

This page is about the M11 motorway in England. For the M11 motorway in the Republic of Ireland, see N11 road. For the M11 motorway in Russia, see M11 motorway (Russia).

The M11 motorway in England is a major road running approximately north from the North Circular Road (A406) in South Woodford in north-east London to the A14, north-west of Cambridge.

Contents 1 Route 2 History 2.1 Planning 2.2 Construction 3 Proposed Improvements 3.1 M11 and A120 Stansted Generation 2 Airport Access 3.2 M11 Junctions 6 to 8 Improvements 4 Incidents 4.1 Plane crash 4.2 Snow storm 5 Junctions 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

Route

The M11 starts in north London at the North Circular heading north to the M25 and then passing to the east of Harlow and Bishop's Stortford and to the west of Stansted Airport ending at a junction with the A14 to the west of Cambridge.

The motorway has three lanes both ways from shortly after junction 4 up until junction 8 (the Stansted Airport junction), except for a brief two lane section at J6 beneath the M25. From junction 8 the road is two lanes both way to junction 14 where it ends.

The motorway is illuminated at the southern terminus near junction 4, at junction 6 (M25 interchange), junction 8 (Stansted Airport/Bishop's Stortford), and the northern terminus at junction 14(A14). All four of these sections use modern high pressure sodium (SON) lighting. The older yellow low pressure sodium (SOX) lighting originally used at junctions 4 and 6 was replaced in 2005.

History

Planning

In 1966 it had been intended that the motorway would follow a different route out of London, starting at Dalston and heading north-east to Walthamstow then north past Chingford and Waltham Cross to meet the current alignment north of Harlow. At this time the proposed section of the motorway from South Woodford to Islington would have been the designated as the M12. It was intended to connect to a number of other motorways in north-east London as part of the London Ringways Plan. Most of this plan was canceled in the early 1970s.

The M11 was also planned to start at The Angel, Islington nearer central London where it would have met the Inner Ring Road and the A1. From there it would have run east alongside the Regent's Canal and the north side of Victoria Park to an interchange at Hackney Wick where it would have connected to the North Cross and East Cross Routes at the north-east corner of the London Motorway Box (Ringway 1 of the Ringways Plan).

The proposed section of the current M11 design from Hackney Wick through Leyton, Leytonstone, Snaresbrook to South Woodford was never built to motorway standard and as a consequence the motorway currently starts at junction 4. One clue to the location of the unbuilt southern section of the M11 is the bridge over seemingly nothing along the current northbound A406 to M11 "slip-road".

At the start of the current M11 at junction 4 at South Woodford it would have connected with the eastern end of a proposed M12 motorway to Essex and also with the planned M15 motorway (Ringway 2) which was an upgrade to the North circular to motorway standard. When the southern end of the current M11 was finally constructed, space was provided between the two carriageways to enable the M12 carriageways to merge with it and the M15.

Construction

The motorway was opened in stages. Junctions 7–8 in 1975, junctions 4–7 in 1977, Junctions 8–9 in 1979 and Junctions 9–14 in 1980, becoming fully operational in February 1980.^[1][2]

During the 1970s when the road was built budgets were tight, and as a consequence unsurfaced concrete was used between Junction 14 and a point approximately two miles to the south of Junction 7. South of this stretch, where the road runs on soft ground close to the River Roding, concrete was considered unsuitable due to the looseness of the subsoil and the consequent risk of random cracking, so the road surface here was of tarmac from the start.

The M11 Link Road (Wanstead to Hackney Wick), now designated the A12, was opened in 1999 on a route similar to that of the planned M11 route. This highly controversial project resulted in the protracted M11 link road protest between 1993 and 1995, one of a number of major road protests in the UK during the 1990s.

A Government plan to add north-facing connections at Junction 5 (Loughton) was deleted in 1998.^[3]

During the late 1990s and early years of the twenty-first century the concrete surface further north – which had become seriously degraded – was progressively replaced with modern tarmac. Necessary drainage improvements were implemented at the same time. The only remaining concrete surfaces left on the motorway as of 2007 were a five mile stretch from Junction 8 northwards and a 0.9 mile stretch between Junctions 5 and 6. The former was due to be replaced in the latter part of 2007; the replacement of the latter was completed in June 2008.

An additional junction, Junction 8A, opened in December 2002.

Proposed Improvements

As part of the plans for the proposed expansion of Stansted Airport the Highways Agency has been working with BAA on improvements to transport access to the airport^[4] including two proposals for the M11^[5].

M11 and A120 Stansted Generation 2 Airport Access

A joint scheme involving works on junctions on the M11 and A120. It proposes that changes would be made to junction 8 of the M11 with the creation of junction 8b, linked to and situated just north of junction 8/8a and the creation of a new junction on the A120, to provide additional access to Stansted Airport^[6]. The scheme was given an estimated cost of £131 million in May 2008^[7]. Throughout 2007 a number of public consultations and exhibitions where held. Findings from these showed that although the public had several concerns regarding environmental impact 57% of attendees agreed the scheme would be necessary if the Stansted Airport expansion proceeded^[6]. Following the public consultation the Preferred Route was published on 5 March 2008 and Draft Orders on 27 March 2008^[8]. A pre-public inquiry meeting took place on 10 November 2008^[9] with a public inquiry due in April 2009.^[10] However, this was delayed until further notice following BAA's appeal against the March 2009 ruling of the Competition Commission.^[11]

M11 Junctions 6 to 8 Improvements

This proposal involves upgrading the M11, between junction 6 and 8, from 3 lane carriageway to 4 lane carriageway with an estimated cost of £698 million given in 2007^[12]. Following a number of public consultations throughout 2007 the proposal is currently awaiting the publication of results and of the Draft Orders before it can advance^[13]. Although efforts in the proposal are made to limit environmental damage the scheme would still involve the removal of land from three designated ecological areas and a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) at Gernon Bushes ^[4]. Maps of the proposal and previously discounted options have been published by the Highways Agency.

Incidents

Plane crash

In June 2002, a brake failure on an Aero L-39 Albatross landing at Imperial War Museum caused the plane to run off the end of the runway and down the embankment on to the motorway. The trainee pilot was killed when he ejected from ground level but the instructor survived the accident and no vehicles on the motorway were involved^[14]. The main runway at Duxford had been shortened in 1977 from 6,000 feet (1,800 m) to 4,800 feet (1,500 m) when the motorway was built. More recently even though Duxford already met all licensing requirements, the declared length was reduced to 4,010 feet (1,220 m) to further increase safety.^[15][16]

Snow storm

In January 2003, thousands of motorists became stranded for up to 20 hours between junctions 7 & 9 during a snowstorm. ^[17]

Junctions

M11 Motorway
Southbound exits	Junction	Northbound exits
North Circular, West End, The City, Docklands, Blackwall Tunnel (A12) A406	J4	Start of motorway
No access	J5	Loughton A1168
Watford M1 , Oxford M40, Heathrow Airport M4, M3, Maidstone M20, Gatwick Airport M23, M25	J6	Hatfield, Dartford, Maidstone
Chelmsford, Harlow A414	J7	Harlow A414
Stansted Airport, Bishop's Stortford A120	J8 Birchanger Green services	Stansted Airport, Bishop's Stortford A120
No access	J8a	Stansted Airport A120
No access	J9	Newmarket, Norwich A11
Saffron Walden, Duxford, Haverhill A505	J10	Royston, Duxford A505
Royston A10 Cambridge A1309	J11	Harston A10 Cambridge A1309
Cambridge, Sandy A603	J12	Cambridge, Sandy A603
No access	J13	Cambridge, Bedford A1303
Start of motorway	J14	The SOUTH, Cambridge, Newmarket A14
The SOUTH, Cambridge, Newmarket A14 Non-motorway traffic		Road continues as A14 towards Huntingdon

See also

• List of motorways in the United Kingdom

References

External links

• CBRD Motorway Database - M11
• The Motorway Archive - M11

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