The M11 is a 55-mile-long (89 km) motorway that runs north from the North Circular Road (A406) at South Woodford to the A14 at Girton, northwest of Cambridge, England. It was originally proposed as a trunk road as early as 1915; various plans were considered throughout the 1960s, with final construction being undertaken between 1975 and 1980. The motorway was opened in stages, with the first stage between junctions 7 and 8 opening in June 1975, and the completed motorway becoming fully operational in February 1980. The motorway provides direct access to Harlow and Cambridge, and since 2002 has greatly improved access to London Stansted Airport.
Route The M11 starts in South Woodford in northeast London, just north of Redbridge Roundabout, and crosses the North Circular (A406) at junction 4. It then heads NNE, passing east of Loughton and Theydon Bois as well as Epping Forest, meeting the M25 motorway at junction 6, and then veering approximately north, passing to the east of Harlow. The M11 gives access to Bishop's Stortford and the motorway's only service station via junction 8. This is followed immediately by the recently constructed junction 8A, which provides a free-flow link to the improved A120 that links to Stansted Airport. The M11 then traverses part of Cambridgeshire, meeting a spur for the A11 at junction 9, Stump Cross, and then finally ends at junction 14, the Girton Interchange, with the road continuing through the junction and becoming the A14, which continues the route on to Huntingdon and the north. The motorway starts with two lanes southbound and three northbound; then, north of Woodford Bridge, both directions have three lanes, a layout that continues up to junction 8A, except for a brief two-lane section at junction 6, beneath the M25. From junction 8 the motorway has two lanes in both directions all the way to junction 14 where the motorway terminates. The motorway is illuminated at the southern terminus near junction 4, at junction 6 (the M25 interchange), and also at the approach to junction 8/8A (Stansted Airport/Bishop's Stortford), and then at the northern terminus at junction 14, for the 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. The M11 junctions 1, 2 and 3 do not exist (see the History section below for an explanation).
History
Planning Plans for an 'Eastern Avenue' in London had been proposed as early as 1915, and the Eastern Avenue Extension was causing local concern in Leyton and Hackney during the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was opposed by a number of groups, including the Hackney Society and local residents as represented by their member of parliament in 1962. By 1966, the Ministry of Transport was planning a longer road and for it to be partly motorway. The first version had a mid-south section, to follow a River Lea route, starting at Angel southwest of Dalston, heading northeast then north, taking land by the river in Walthamstow, Chingford and Waltham Cross, and meeting the built road alignment of today north of Harlow. The road from South Woodford to Islington would have been designated as the M12. The route was in planning stages with several options, with differences between the plans preferred by the Greater London Council and the Ministry of Transport – a different version called for this 'Eastern Avenue' to run more east–west alongside the Regent's Canal and the north side of Victoria Park, Hackney Wick, where it would have connected to the North Cross and East Cross Routes at the northeast corner of an inner ringway identified by the London Ringways plan. There were three proposed routes from the inner to outer ringway (North Circular) at the base of the current M11, and it is unclear which one was favoured. Under one scheme, south of South Woodford a connection would have been made with the western end of a proposed "M12" towards Colchester. These proposals also made the case for an M15 motorway for the Ringway 2, a major upgrade of the North Circular Road to typical motorway standard. When the southern end of the current M11 ended here, space was provided between the two carriageways to enable an offshoot of 'the M12' to merge from the southwest: junctions 1, 2 and 3 were reserved for this additional inner London section. Part of the unbuilt route of a southern section of the M11 is seen from a sliproad from the North Circular to the M11 which travels over a bridge over bare land. It was announced in March 1975 that from junction 8 (Bishops Stortford/Stansted exit) to the northern terminus, (thus including the Cambridge western bypass) would not be "constructed to M1 standard". This was another way of stating that, following a change in government policy, this section would comprise two rather than three lanes in each direction.
Additions The M11 Link Road, or more formally 'A12 Hackney to M11 link road' (in fact leading to the North Circular) was constructed during the 1990s from Hackney Wick by Victoria Park to the Redbridge Roundabout—the interchange with the North Circular—and was opened in 1999. The route of this road, which followed a similar route to one of the initial proposals resulted in the protracted M11 link road protest between 1993 and 1995, one of a spate of major UK road protests under the Major ministry. A new junction 7a was opened on 10 June 2022. The stated aims for this development are:
Create a new east–west link, which will move traffic smoothly out of Harlow on to the M11 Reduce congestion on the north–south links through Harlow and towards junction 7 Create new public transport and sustainable travel opportunities Provide new opportunities for housing and business developments.
Abortive/suspended proposals
Junction 5 An official plan to add north-facing connections at junction 5 in Debden, Loughton was abandoned in 1998.
Junctions 6 to 8
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