No vehicle gets through Gallows Corner from 10pm on Friday 18 September to 5am on Monday 21, and the flyover shuts overnight on Thursday 17 first.

The last full closure at Gallows Corner now has dates. From 22:00 on Friday 18 September to 05:00 on Monday 21 September, the whole junction shuts to traffic in every direction. Transport for London published the times on its travel advice page for the works, and Havering Council confirmed them the same week (TfL; Havering Council, 10 September 2026).

There is a second, smaller closure the night before.

The two closures

  • Thursday 17 September, 22:00 to 05:00 on Friday 18. The flyover closes to all vehicles. The roundabout stays partly open, with access to the A12 Colchester Road eastbound only, and to Straight Road and Main Road in both directions.
  • Friday 18 September, 22:00 to 05:00 on Monday 21. The roundabout and the flyover both close. TfL’s wording is that there will be “no vehicle journeys through Gallows Corner in any direction”.

During the weekend closure there is no access to or from the A127 Southend Arterial Road, and none between the A12 Colchester Road and either the A12 Eastern Avenue or the A118 Main Road.

Both TfL and the council say local diversion routes will be signed. Neither has published the route or a map. We asked TfL’s own pages and the council’s news page for one and could not find it, so the honest position before the weekend is that drivers will be following signs on the night rather than a plan they can read in advance.

Why now

Essex and Suffolk Water finished replacing the water main and handed the site back on 31 August. That let TfL’s contractor, Costain, start the last stage.

The council says Costain is completing carriageway works on the A127 and A12 this week, and that final white lining and the commissioning of new pedestrian crossings follow. The weekend closure is for reinstating the road surface, the road markings and the street furniture.

Gallows Corner closures, 17 to 21 September 2026 Thursday 17 September 22:00 to Friday 18 September 05:00, the flyover is closed and the roundabout is partly open. Friday 18 September 22:00 to Monday 21 September 05:00, the whole junction is closed in all directions. TfL plans to reopen the junction fully by the end of September 2026. Gallows Corner: the last two closures TfL travel advice page and Havering Council, checked 12 September 2026 THURSDAY 17 INTO FRIDAY 18 22:00 to 05:00 Flyover closed Roundabout partly open: A12 Colchester Road eastbound, Straight Road, Main Road FRIDAY 18 INTO MONDAY 21 22:00 to 05:00 Whole junction closed No vehicle journeys in any direction, roundabout and flyover both shut After that, TfL plans to reopen the entire junction by the end of September 2026. Local diversion routes will be signed. Neither TfL nor the council has published the route. Graphic by Romford Today.
The two closures, in TfL's and the council's own times. The weekend one is the last before the junction reopens.

Then it reopens

TfL says it plans to reopen the entire junction by the end of September 2026, with both the roundabout and the flyover open in all directions and all diversions and traffic management removed. The junction’s disruption record, TIMS-206772, still books the works to 22:59 on 30 September (TfL Unified API, A12 disruption feed).

Two cautions are worth keeping in mind.

The first is that this is a plan, not a promise. The works began in March 2025 and were originally due to finish that September.

The second is that TfL’s own two pages still disagree. Its project page says the water company is expected to hand the site back “by the end of August 2026”, which already happened, and describes the final stage as closures “predominantly at night” rather than one full weekend. The travel advice page is the one TfL is updating, so that is the one to read.

Councillor Keith Prince AM, the Leader of Havering Council, set an October deadline for full reopening when he took the role. In the council’s statement he said the reopening looks on track “by that date at the latest, and potentially by the end of September”, and added that he would “keep pressing TfL for compensation for businesses affected, and for the Council, whose roads have been impacted and damaged by larger vehicles being forced onto diversion routes that are not appropriate for their weight or size”.

Around 2,000 residents petitioned last year for council tax refunds covering the months the works overran. The council says it has no legal power to rebate council tax.

What it means for you

  • If you drive through Gallows Corner at weekends, 18 to 21 September is the one to plan around. It is a complete closure, not a lane restriction, and it covers Friday night, all of Saturday and Sunday, and Monday morning before 05:00.
  • The trains are the clean way out that weekend. TfL’s planned track closures document, published on 11 September, lists no Elizabeth line or Liberty line work in the week of 14 to 20 September, so Romford, Gidea Park and Harold Wood should run a normal service (TfL planned track closures). Our Romford to London train times page has the journey times and fares.
  • Bus routes 174, 496, 498 and 499 go through the junction. TfL’s published advice covers the current partial closure, where it warns of three to five minutes of delay. It has not yet said what those routes do over the closure weekend, so check bus status before you travel.
  • For long westbound journeys, TfL’s standing advice is still to re-route via the M25, then the M11 and A13.
  • We are keeping every live closure in the borough on our Romford roadworks and travel page, updated on each visit.

Sources