M11 motorway

The M11 is a motorway in eastern England running 89 kilometres north from the North Circular Road in South Woodford to the A14 near Cambridge. It passes through parts of Greater London and Essex before entering Cambridgeshire, ending at the Girton Interchange where the A14 continues the route north. The motorway was built between 1975 and 1980 in stages, with earlier plans dating back to 1915. The M11 provides direct access to Harlow and Cambridge and improved access to London Stansted Airport after 2002. It crosses Epping Forest and meets the M25 at junction 6, while junction 8A links to the A120 for Stansted Airport. The motorway has three lanes in each direction north of junction 8A, reducing to two lanes further north. Modern lighting uses high-pressure sodium lamps at key junctions. Birchanger Green Services at junction 8 is the only service station on the M11, opened in 1996. The road surface varies: unsurfaced concrete was used in some sections due to budget constraints, while tarmac was laid where the ground was soft near the River Roding. A new junction 7a opened in 2022 to ease traffic through Harlow and support new housing and business developments.