Tarpots Corner changes in 2012

All change again!

The double mini-roundabouts
Phil Coley
The double mini-roundabouts
Phil Coley
London Road Tarpots
Christine Coley
London Road Tarpots
Christine Coley
Old Focus store at Tarpots
Phil Coley
New Aldi store at Tarpots
Phil Coley
Negotiating the mini-roundabouts
Christine Coley
Negotiating the mini-roundabouts
Christine Coley
Traffic light st Tarpots
Phil Coley
Traffic lights at Tarpots
Phil Coley
Turning into Rushbottom Lane
Phil Coley
Tarpots Mini-Roundabouts
Christine and Phil Coley
Tarpots traffic Lights 2012
Christine and Phil Coley

In the film “The Great Flood 1968” it clearly shows traffic lights at Tarpots Corner junction. However, these were removed in 1989 (edit to article on 1st June 2020. Previously we said 1972) and replaced by double mini-roundabouts.

The London Road (A13) through Tarpots was only two narrow lanes in either direction.

The roundabouts did allow you, if you were travelling westward along the A13, to turn right into Rushbottom Lane allowing traffic to go to the Focus DIY store.

After the store closed in June 2011, the site was eventually redeveloped and opened as an Aldi in October 2014.

At busy times the double roundabout could become a bit confusing for drivers not used to the road layout and vehicles coming from a number of directions.

As part of the £63.5 million traffic flow improvements to the A13, A130 and Sadlers Farm Roundabout, the stretch of road between Sadlers Farm and Tarpots was to have its four narrow lanes widened to 3 metres each and the mini-roundabouts removed and replaced with traffic lights. Work was scheduled to start on 16th January 2012 and expected to be completed in time for the 2012 Olympic Games Mountain Bike event on Hadleigh Downs. This was part of Essex County Council’s plan for the A13 Passenger Transport Corridor.

So work began to change the layout, widen the road and install traffic lights and incorporate bus lanes on the A13. The result was traffic lights on all four roads meeting at Tarpots Corner; the High Road, London Road and Rushbottom lane with filter lanes for the right and left turns.

The other change was that traffic could no longer turn right into Rushbottom Lane if travelling west along London Road. Instead traffic had to continue to Sadlers Farm Roundabout, which had also been drastically changed, and come back down London Road in an easterly direction to turn left at the traffic lights.

Downloads
Essex County Council newsletter in November 2010 (4 mbytes)

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  • I hope I’m not asking to much here, but does anyone remember a family that lived in Church Road called the ‘Craddock’ family. If so, what happened to them?

    By Seamus (27/03/2019)
  • As I recall, years ago there were traffic lights between the Harvester and the Co-op, why were these taken away please?

    By Seamus (27/03/2019)
  • Before the bike shop and the flats were built, it used to be a car showroom Max Motors.

    By Rich North (25/03/2017)
  • The flats that have the bike shop under them, what was there before, as I can’t recall it?

    By Shane (08/11/2016)
  • The Focus store first opened as W H Smith Do It All after being redeveloped on the site previously occupied for many years by Atlas Express. The security building at the gates of the yard had been converted from what had originally been the local public conveniences when the company on the site was Essex Carriers. So it goes, many years, many changes !

    Editor’s note: Don, I thought you might be interested to know that there is a section on the site covering the Tarpots area which includes several pages about Essex Carriers.

    By Don Joy (17/08/2015)

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