A47 upgrades: Why are they happening and where?

More than 10 years ago, the East of England was identified as an area in need of investment. Despite campaigners and wildlife putting pause to some of these plans, construction work is under way for schemes along the A47. The BBC has been finding out where the work is taking place and how drivers will be affected.

Three schemes are under way to improve safety and ease congestion throughout the county.

Recently, work on the A47-A11 to overhaul the Thickthorn junction was given the go ahead by the government.

Lilian Greenwood, Future of Roads Minister, visited the A47 on Thursday and said the £200m scheme would "make this road safer".

"There's no future hold-ups, work is under way already," she said. "We anticipate the road will be improved and open for traffic in Spring 2027."

Three thousand residential dwellings and commercial business units could be built near the junction, with National Highways anticipating it could increase congestion.

Elsewhere along the A47, work began in October between North Tuddenham and Easton to improve the road, that is currently unable to cope with the high volume of traffic.

Plans include the road to be dualled, with two new junctions and the removal of the Easton roundabout.

At Blofield, the road which is currently a single carriageway will also be dualled and will be located about 70m south of the existing road.

A bridge will also be added over the carriageway to connect Blofield and North Burlingham, taking traffic towards Great Yarmouth.

All of the schemes aim to improve the safety of the road, including easing congestion.

Blofield, where a new bridge is due to be built, hopes to improve amenities for cyclists and pedestrians.

In Thickthorn, near where 30,000 homes are planned to be built, the work aims to support regional housing and economic growth in the city.

The Department for Transport says once the work is completed, drivers are predicted to save up to four minutes on their journeys at peak times on the eastbound A11 to A47, and up to three minutes along the A11.

Numerous improvements and construction work has been delayed due to legal challenges by environmental campaigners.

Around the road between North Tuddenham and Easton, National Highways has felled 2,500 trees to create two additional lanes.

David Hook, of the Campaign to Protect Rural England group, said: "If you are completely altering a landscape, there is no way that can be described as sensitive.

"We need infrastructure of the right type in the right places, and that does not necessarily include dualling a short stretch of road between Easton and the current dual carriageway."

While construction work for this part of road began in October, it was delayed by 20 months by legal challenges from environmental campaigners.

In a comment piece published in the Daily Mail in January, Sir Keir Starmer said "nimbys and zealots" had tried to stop the government from "building the infrastructure the country needs".

Andrew Boswell, a former Green Party councillor, has been involved in legal challenges against A47 schemes including stopping the dualling between Blofield and North Burlingham, and claims the planning system does not work to protect nature or the climate.

He said previously: "I'm not doing it for myself... I am doing it for my grandchildren.

"I am also doing it for nature and if we just let this erosion of nature go on in this country and the erosion of the climate targets, then our kids won't have a decent place to live."

Both upgrades to the Thickthorn junction and the A47 at North Tuddenham are expected to be completed by Spring 2027.

However, no exact date has yet been set for the work to be completed at Blofield.

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