The water main is finished and the site went back to TfL on 31 August. TfL then extended its own closure record to 30 September, with no reopening date.

The water company has left Gallows Corner. The junction is still shut, and Transport for London has quietly given itself another month.

Essex & Suffolk Water confirmed on 28 August that its work under the junction was finished. “We’re pleased to share that our work at Gallows Corner is now complete,” it told followers of its own project page, adding that it would hand the site back to TfL on Monday 31 August “as promised in July” (Essex & Suffolk Water project update, 28 August 2026).

TfL then updated its live record of the closure. Just before 1am on Monday 1 September, it changed disruption record TIMS-206772 and moved the end date from 31 August to 30 September 2026 (TfL Unified API, A12 disruption feed). When Romford Today checked the same record on 18 August, it ran to 31 August.

That date is a booking, not a promise

The end date on a roadworks record is when the works are booked to finish. It is not a commitment to reopen the road, and TfL has not made one. The record itself still says “Re-opening date to be confirmed”.

TfL’s public pages had not caught up at all. Checked on the morning of 1 September, both the scheme page and the live works page still said the water company “currently expect to complete their works and hand the site back to TfL by the end of August 2026”, a sentence overtaken by events. Both repeat the same line TfL has used since July: “We will provide an expected reopening date as soon as possible.”

Havering Council’s news feed has published nothing on Gallows Corner since 10 July, when it printed a letter TfL had sent the Leader. That letter set out sheet piling and pressure testing, and no end date. The council said then that it would “share weekly updates from TfL on Council channels” (Havering Council, 10 July 2026).

Gallows Corner: the last three weeks of dates Timeline. 18 August 2026: TfL's closure record runs to 31 August. 28 August 2026: Essex and Suffolk Water says its work is complete. 31 August 2026: the site is handed back to TfL. 1 September 2026, just before 1am: TfL extends the closure record to 30 September. 30 September 2026 is the new end date on the record, not a reopening date. The water main finished on time. The closure did not. Essex & Suffolk Water project updates and TfL's A12 disruption feed, checked 1 September 2026 18 Aug Record ends 31 Aug 28 Aug Water firm: work complete 31 Aug Site handed back to TfL 1 Sept, 00:58 Record extended to 30 Sept 30 September is when the works are booked to end. TfL has not given a reopening date. Graphic by Romford Today. Spacing is not to scale.
The water company met the date it set itself in July. TfL's own closure record moved a month the same night.

What is still closed

From TfL’s live works page, checked on 1 September:

  • the westbound flyover, with no access to it at all
  • the connection from the A12 Eastern Avenue East eastbound onto the roundabout
  • the connection from the roundabout onto the A12 Eastern Avenue East westbound
  • the connection from the A12 Colchester Road onto the roundabout
  • the connection from the roundabout onto the A127 Southend Arterial Road eastbound

Still open: the eastbound flyover between the A12 and the A127, the roundabout onto the A12 Colchester Road eastbound, and Straight Road and Main Road in both directions. Lane restrictions remain on the eastbound A12 and on every approach to the roundabout.

The delays TfL is now measuring

The disruption record carries TfL’s own figures for what the closure costs drivers and bus passengers:

  • 3 to 5 minutes of extra journey time on Ardleigh Green Road, Gubbins Lane and Gooshays Drive
  • 1 to 3 minutes on North Street heading away from Romford
  • additional peak-time delays on the westbound A13 and the southbound M11, from traffic diverting

What it means for you

If you drive west from Romford, nothing has changed this week and nothing is scheduled to change before the end of September at the earliest. Plan on the same diversions through Ardleigh Green Road and Gubbins Lane that you have been using since May.

Watch for one thing in particular. If TfL announces a reopening, it will come with resurfacing and reinstatement work first, which is what it means by “final works”. That is likely to need its own overnight closures rather than a straight switch-on.

For the current picture on the rest of the borough’s roads, including the Cedar Road sewer closure running to 11 September and the overnight Pettits Lane resurfacing on 4 September, see our Romford roadworks and travel page. If your route out of town is the train instead, c2c is running an amended timetable because of the drought, and our Romford train times page covers the Elizabeth line alternative.

Sources