originally, the a12 followed the route of the roman road closely and so was fairly straight, but there are now several town bypasses, so the road through essex now has several meanders. the a12 formerly went through brentwood, mountnessing, ingatestone, margaretting, chelmsford, boreham, hatfield peverel, witham, kelvedon, copford, stanway and colchester, but these are all now bypassed, and the a12 is close to motorway standard for its whole length in essex. now, the a12 is behind the suburb of chelmer village.