Bishop's Stortford Roadworks: M11 Junction 8 Shut Twice

Bishop’s Stortford’s own motorway junction loses a slip road twice this week. The M11 northbound exit at junction 8 goes on Monday night. The southbound entry from Priory Wood Roundabout goes on Thursday night. Both are overnight closures, and between them they take out the turn off the motorway for the town and the turn onto it.

Nothing is shut on the A1250 through Hockerill, on the A120 bypass or on the A10. The A10 does not appear in the current National Highways closure report at all.

This Bishop’s Stortford roadworks page was rechecked against every source on 20 September 2026. It covers what is closed now, what starts in the next fortnight, and the practical things that do not change month to month.

Monday night: the M11 northbound exit slip at junction 8

From 21:00 on Monday 21 September to 04:59 on Tuesday 22 September, National Highways is closing the M11 northbound exit slip road and the A120 eastbound link road, for drainage work. It files the closure under a scheme running from the A120/M11 flyover down to junction 7, which is why the words “junction 8” never appear in its own listing.

That flyover is junction 8, the A120 junction for Bishop’s Stortford, Stansted Airport and Great Dunmow. So the turn a northbound driver uses to come off the motorway for the town and the airport is the one that goes. The next exit north is junction 9 at Great Chesterford, roughly nine miles on.

Thursday night: the southbound entry at Priory Wood Roundabout

From 21:00 on Thursday 24 September to 04:59 on Friday 25 September, the same drainage scheme closes the M11 southbound entry slip road from Priory Wood Roundabout and the A120 link road.

Priory Wood Roundabout is the junction 8 roundabout on the A120. This is the opposite movement to Monday’s: the way a driver leaving Bishop’s Stortford gets onto the M11 towards Harlow, the M25 and London. There is no signed local alternative in the report, so the practical options are the A1184 south through Sawbridgeworth to Harlow, or the A120 east to join at a different point.

A third night of the same scheme lands in between: the M11 southbound junction 7A entry slip road, the Harlow Gilston side, closes from 21:00 on Tuesday 22 September to 04:59 on Wednesday.

What else is shut on the M11 and M25 this week

• M11 northbound, junctions 4 to 6. Carriageway, both slip roads and the link road closed 22:00 to 05:30 on Monday 21, Tuesday 22, Wednesday 23 and Thursday 24 September, for surfacing. Junction 6 is the M25. The diversion is signed over local authority and National Highways roads.
• M11 northbound, junction 9 to the A11 at Fourwentways, closed overnight into Monday morning. That is the Cambridge end, part of the long reconstruction there.
• M25 clockwise, junctions 25 to 26, 22:00 to 05:30 on Monday 21 to Thursday 24 September, for maintenance. Junction 25 is the A10 at Enfield, the junction Waltham Cross, Cheshunt, Broxbourne and Hoddesdon drivers use.
• M25 clockwise, junction 27 to the M11 link road, closed 22:00 to 05:30 on Wednesday 23 September for safety fence repairs. Junction 27 is the M11 interchange itself.

Every A120 entry in the current report is at the Essex coast end, around the Crown Interchange with the A12 near Colchester. Nothing on the A120 is closed near Bishop’s Stortford, Stansted or Great Dunmow.

All of the above comes from the National Highways road closure report, whose current edition runs from Friday 18 September to Thursday 24 September 2026. The workbook is reissued each day and its download link changes every time, so take the current file rather than trusting these dates if you are reading this later.

The district’s street closures: what the new batch confirmed

Hertfordshire County Council published its current batch of temporary closure orders on 17 September 2026. These are the local street closures, the ones that never appear on any motorway report.

The useful thing about this batch is what it did not carry. Two jobs moved from proposal to made order, so their dates are now firm. The two longest jobs in the district, the 54-day drainage closure of Priory Street in Ware and the 12-day cabling job in Cock Lane, Hoddesdon, both still sit at “intends to make” a week after they were first advertised and a week before they are due to start.

Confirmed in the 17 September batch

• Byde Street, Hertford. About 15 metres, 43 metres north east of Wellington Street, from 21 September for five days, for remedial works. The signed route is long: Wellington Street, Nelson Street, Molewood Road, Bean Road, the A119 North Road, St Andrew Street, the B158 and Duncombe Road.
• Swanfield Road, Waltham Cross. About 27 metres at Central Avenue, from 21 September for two days, for remedial works. Diverted via Central Avenue, Gloucester Avenue and Royal Avenue.
• Marshalls Lane, Sacombe (200 metres, 18 September, one day) and Vicarage Lane, Stapleford (100 metres, 19 September, one day, for vegetation removal and brickwork repair). Both were single days and both have now passed.

Still running: the five-week gas main job in Hoddesdon

Gas main works are closing roughly 829 metres of the A1170 Ware Road in Hoddesdon, from the Bridle Way and Plomer Avenue roundabout to Westhill Road. The order came into effect on 7 September and the works were scheduled to take five weeks, so expect it into the second week of October. Access is maintained and the signed route runs via the A10 Amwell Link Road and Hoddesdon Link Road (notice published 3 September 2026).

Hoddesdon is about 13 miles west of Bishop’s Stortford, in Broxbourne borough, so this one does not touch the town. It is still the largest live closure anywhere in this paper’s patch.

Also still running: Bridleway Buntingford 013, between Hare Street Road and The Causeway, closed from 11 September for up to six months for development works, with no suitable alternative for cyclists or horse riders.

Coming in the next fortnight

These are all at the “intends to make” stage, which means the dates are set but the order has not been made and the start can move:

• Robins Nest Hill, Little Berkhamsted (1,881 metres), Fairfield Drive, Wormley (556 metres), Hobbs Close, Cheshunt and Penton Drive, Cheshunt (544 metres), one order from 25 September, seven days.
• Cock Lane, Hoddesdon, about 650 metres, from 28 September for 12 days, for overhead cabling.
• Priory Street, Ware, about 100 metres, from 28 September for 54 days, for drainage. That remains by far the longest job in the district.
• Hertingfordbury Road (89 metres, 29 September, three days) and Nelson Street (91 metres, 29 September, four days, for sewer cleaning), both in Hertford.
• West End Road, Wormley, 46 metres, from 30 September, three days.
• B1038 at Buntingford, 50 metres near Horseshoe Hill, from 30 September, two days, to replace a telegraph pole.
• Union Terrace, Buntingford, 77 metres, plus the footpath beside numbers 9 to 17 Riverside, from 1 October, five days.
• Hoe Lane, Hertford Heath, 66 metres, from 1 October, one day, to replace a telegraph pole. New this week.
• The Old Coach Road, Cole Green, 40 metres, from 2 October, one day. New this week.
• Poles Lane, Thundridge, 100 metres, from 3 October, two days, telegraph pole. New this week.
• Warren Lane, Cottered, 60 metres, from 8 October, two days, telegraph pole. New this week.

Read the small print on all of them. Each order lasts 18 months, but the works are expected to take only the time listed, and the restriction applies only on the days and at the times shown on the signs on site. An order being live does not mean the road is shut today (Hertfordshire County Council notices, published 17 September 2026).

The separate Hertfordshire batch published the same day in the Stevenage Comet is entirely North Hertfordshire, covering Preston, Kings Walden, Hitchin, Letchworth and Baldock. Nothing in it is in this paper’s patch, and there was no Buntingford batch this week (Stevenage Comet batch, 17 September 2026).

Essex side: Stansted Mountfitchet and Hatfield Broad Oak, from 12 October

Essex County Council advertised its own batch on 17 September, and three of the closures in it are within a few miles of Bishop’s Stortford. All are Openreach or county works, all take effect as orders from 24 September, and the works themselves are scheduled for 12 October:

• Stansted Road, Stansted Mountfitchet, about 60 metres starting 270 metres north east of Lower Street, for five days from 12 October, for duct laying. Diverted via the B1051, B184, B1052 and B1383.
• Collier Street and Green Hill, Hatfield Broad Oak, about 780 metres from Wood Row, for three days from 12 October, for carriageway patching. Diverted via Hatfield Forest Road, Bush End and the B183.
• A cluster at Great Easton, near Great Dunmow: Andrews Farm Lane (485 metres), Breach Lane (1,100 metres) and two lengths of Mill End Green Road (1,020 and 990 metres), all for five days from 12 October, for Openreach cabling. Breach Lane has a signed route; Andrews Farm Lane has none.

One Essex order has already been made: Frenches Green Road, Felsted, 195 metres, three days from 28 September (Essex County Council notices, 17 September 2026).

Essex also changed how quickly it fixes things. At its cabinet meeting on Wednesday 16 September the county council agreed a revised highways maintenance strategy that creates a new D3 defect category, to be repaired within 90 days. These are lower-risk defects that until now had no fixed repair deadline at all. The council says it will be paid for out of existing budgets (Essex Highways, 17 September 2026).

If you want to object: two consultations are open

Horns Road and West Street, Hertford. Hertfordshire County Council is proposing a 20 mph speed limit on part of Horns Road, plus new no waiting at any time restrictions on parts of West Street and Horns Road. Reference EH01026. Objections close 24 September 2026, so there are days left.

Trapstyle Road, Park Road and The Brickfields, Ware. New no waiting at any time restrictions, proposed to improve road safety. Reference EH01426, with the papers viewable from 17 September. Objections close 8 October 2026.

Both sets of plans can be seen at Farnham House in Stevenage during office hours, or online at the county’s traffic orders pages under East Herts. Objections go in writing to tro.team@hertfordshire.gov.uk, or to the TRO Services Team, Postal Point (CHO242), Farnham House, Six Hills Way, Stevenage, SG1 2ST, stating the grounds they are made on.

Apton Road, in the town itself

The temporary closure order for a 44 metre length of Apton Road in Bishop’s Stortford, for utility service works, came into effect on 27 July 2026 and runs for six months. The works themselves were expected to take about five days, and the restriction only bites on the days shown on the signs.

We could not confirm today whether that work has been carried out. Treat the order as live and the road as normally open unless the signs say otherwise. The diversion, if it is in place, runs via Newtown Road, the B1529 South Street and back into Apton Road (notice published 8 July 2026).

Where to check local roadworks

Hertfordshire County Council does not publish a roadworks list of its own. Its roadworks page offers a map hosted on one.network, the commercial platform councils and utility firms file into. The map loads without an account; the list view asks you to sign in, and one.network’s own data feeds are not open to the public.

Statutory closure orders for individual streets are published as public notices in the local paper and carried on the Public Notice Portal. That is where every street closure above came from.

For the A120 east of junction 8, the road is Essex County Council’s. Essex Highways was checked on 20 September and carries no closure item on the A120 near Bishop’s Stortford, Stansted or Great Dunmow. East Herts District Council has no roadworks function of its own and refers everything to the county.

Trains

The Sunday closure is over. Buses replaced trains between Audley End, Stansted Airport and Broxbourne until 09.10 on Sunday 20 September, and trains run normally after that.

Nothing else in Greater Anglia’s published calendar closes the line through Bishop’s Stortford or Sawbridgeworth in daylight hours before the end of the month. What is coming is night work:

• Monday 28 September to Thursday 1 October. Late night alterations between Liverpool Street and Cambridge. That is the main line through Bishop’s Stortford, so the last trains of the night are the ones to check.
• Monday 28 September to Friday 2 October. Late night and early morning diversions between Liverpool Street and Cheshunt.
• Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 September. Local diversions between Liverpool Street and Cheshunt, and on the Sunday between Liverpool Street and Tottenham Hale until 09.50.

All of that is from Greater Anglia’s service alterations calendar, checked on 20 September 2026. The calendar’s October page is drawn by script and could not be read today, so anything starting after 2 October is not covered here. For live running on the day, use National Rail status and disruptions.

Journey times and season ticket prices are on our trains to London page.

The scheme that will actually change things: A10 Cheshunt

The largest highways project in this paper’s patch is not in Bishop’s Stortford at all. Hertfordshire County Council, working with Broxbourne Borough Council, is designing upgrades to three junctions on the A10 Great Cambridge Road through Cheshunt:

• Church Lane, where right turns onto the A10 from both sides would be stopped and the signals retimed to push more traffic along the A10.
• College Road, where the southbound A10 approach would be widened to three lanes and new pedestrian crossings added on the north and east sides.
• Lieutenant Ellis Way and Winston Churchill Way roundabout, which would become a cut-through or “hamburger” roundabout, with straight-ahead lanes running through the middle so A10 traffic does not have to go round.

Underpasses and flyovers at Lieutenant Ellis Way were looked at through the Broxbourne Local Plan and dropped as too costly and too land-hungry. The scheme also adds walking and cycling routes along Church Lane and College Road, between Theobalds Lane and Albury Walk, and alongside the A10 between Church Lane and Halfhide Lane.

The council has run public engagement and is refining the design using junction queue surveys. No construction dates have been published (Hertfordshire County Council). The council says bus services should not be affected, because almost nothing runs along that stretch of the A10 today.

The routes that matter

• A1250 Hadham Road and Dunmow Road, through Hockerill. The town’s principal east to west route and its worst pinch point. It links Hadham Road in the west to the Dunmow Road climb up to the A120 in the east, through the Hockerill traffic lights. There is no parallel road.
• A120 Bishop’s Stortford bypass to M11 junction 8. The route to Stansted, Braintree and the motorway. When it closes for overnight work, the signed diversion runs back through the town on the A1250, which is why bypass closures are felt on Hadham Road.
• A1184 south to Sawbridgeworth and Harlow. Follows the Stort valley and is the road that floods at Spellbrook when the river comes up.
• A10 through Waltham Cross, Cheshunt, Broxbourne and Hoddesdon. A separate corridor entirely, feeding the M25 at junction 25, and the subject of the scheme above.

Parking in Bishop’s Stortford, and the £3.70 you are probably wasting

East Herts Council runs eight car parks in Bishop’s Stortford. They do not all charge the same, and the difference for a full day is large. Every figure below was rechecked against the council’s own car park pages on 20 September 2026 and is unchanged.

Northgate End (CM23 2ES) is the multi-storey, 482 bays, including 54 electric vehicle charging bays on PodPoint machines, 31 disabled bays and 10 motorcycle bays. Vehicle access runs 07:00 to 23:00, exit is open 24 hours, and charges apply 07:30 to 20:00 Monday to Saturday. The top deck shuts at 23:00 and does not reopen until 07:00. Charging costs 44p per kWh and is billed separately from the parking, and there is a five hour maximum stay in a charging bay.

Jackson Square (CM23 3XQ) is the biggest at 708 spaces but is short stay only. The rest are Apton Road (86), Basbow Lane (71), Crown Terrace (65), Elm Road (47, long stay), Grange Paddocks (80 to 150 depending on the area) and Link Road (100).

Market traders have their own rate on Thursdays and Saturdays, the town’s two market days: £4.80 at Apton Road, £5.00 at Link Road.

All eight are covered by the council’s car park pages, which carry the individual tariffs and space counts.

Station parking

The station car parks are not the council’s: a multi-storey on Anchor Street (CM23 3BP) and a surface car park beside the station (CM23 3BL). Both are a few minutes from the platforms.

What it means for you

• Coming off the M11 northbound for the town or the airport late on Monday? The junction 8 exit slip and the A120 eastbound link are shut from 21:00 on Monday 21 September to 04:59 on Tuesday. Carry on to junction 9, or come off earlier at junction 7.
• Joining the M11 southbound at Priory Wood Roundabout late on Thursday? That entry slip and the A120 link close from 21:00 on Thursday 24 September to 04:59 on Friday. The report gives no signed local alternative.
• Driving the M11 between junctions 4 and 6 any night next week? It is shut northbound from 22:00 to 05:30 on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
• Using the M25 at junction 25 for the A10? Clockwise from 25 to 26 is shut 22:00 to 05:30 on the same four nights.
• Catching a late train to or from Cambridge between 28 September and 1 October? Check before you travel: those four nights carry late alterations on the Liverpool Street to Cambridge line.
• Driving to Hoddesdon or through it before mid-October? The A1170 Ware Road is shut between the Plomer Avenue roundabout and Westhill Road, with the diversion running via the A10.
• In Stansted Mountfitchet or Hatfield Broad Oak? Note 12 October. Both have multi-day closures scheduled to start that day.
• Live on Horns Road or West Street in Hertford? You have until 24 September to object to the 20 mph limit and the new waiting restrictions. On Trapstyle Road, Park Road or The Brickfields in Ware, you have until 8 October.
• Parking in Bishop’s Stortford for the day? Northgate End at £4.40 saves you £3.70 against Apton Road.