A14 roadworks between junction 47a and junction 49 due to start Tuesday, February 7

We attended one of the National Highways public information events to find out about the work to remove, reconstruct and resurface the A14 between junction 47a Haughley and 49 Tothill that is set to begin in early February.

What did we find out you may be asking?

Firstly each presentation at Elmswell Wesley Chapel, Woolpit St Mary’s Church and Stowmarket Leisure Centre all raised a lot of interest from locals with reasonable attendances at each event.

We learnt that the work is due to start on Tuesday 7^th February 2023 and is planned to be completed by the summer of 2024. The work to replace the A14 concrete road between Junction 47a Haughley and Junction 49 at Tothill will necessitate a contraflow on the A14 with some night closures of the road with major diversions in place from Bury St Edmunds Junction 43 along the A143 to Stuston and down the A140 to re-join the A14 at Junction 51 Beacon Hill and vice versa. The diversion is expected to add at least 40 minutes to journeys.

Although they are taking all precautions to limit the disruption to the local communities they acknowledge that there will be major potential problems for residents with vehicles choosing not to follow the recommended route and use the small village roads as “Rat Runs”. “It is inevitable that chaos looms” said a number of attendees.

With the current closure of School Road in Elmswell there have already been large lorries on the smaller roads such as New Road, Warren Lane, Wetherden Road and Church Road causing hold ups and one local resident commented, “We were warned months ago that it is going to be a nightmare and there does appear to be a perfect storm on its way”!

We are in for a long ride let us hope it is not as bad as predicted.

National Highways do apologies in advance for any inconvenience that is caused by this work and indicate that once completed the life of the road surface should be extended by 50 years with fewer road closures in the future.

Recent Gridlock in Elmswell