CONTRACTORS have done well to complete the A127 Tesco roundabout improvement scheme on schedule, in time for Easter, and on budget.

While there has inevitably been some disruption, it has been kept to a minimum. In terms of knock-on ill effects The Tesco project has proved a definite improvement on earlier schemes, such as the work on Progress Road four years ago.

Southend Council has high hopes for the result in terms of improved traffic flow, and if it works as promised, the result will have been worth the delays.

The work is far from over.

Regular drivers along the east end of the A127 will feel mixed emotions at the prospect of two further schemes on a similar scale at Kent Elms and at The Bell junction. If the traffic management lessons applied at the Tesco roundabout are carried over to these schemes, then the effects should not be too frustrating.

Engineers finally seem to have got the message that minimising disruption to existing traffic is a priority.

Taken as a whole, the cluster of improvement schemes from Progress Road to Cuckoo Corner is of enormous long term significance to Southend.

The town’s entire economy has been hampered for decades by the bottleneck formed along this stretch of the A127. The current improvement schemes may be piecemeal, but added together they should make a major difference.