In a complex reworking of the roads since the days of the Aldgate gyratory system, it is two-way, but the east-bound section is part of the ring-road that retained a one-way system south of this junction, but the westbound section is for local access and motorists have to U-turn to avoid entering the congestion charging zone.

However at the end of the flyover, as the road crosses into the London Borough of Newham, the A11 designation disappears and it instead becomes the A118.

This renumbering followed the opening of the A12 extension in 1999, to make the former A11 seem a less important road and encourage traffic to use the new dual carriageway between there and Leytonstone.

The road bypasses Barton Mills before entering Norfolk in the Thetford Forest, passing the 113-foot-tall (34 m) Elveden War Memorial.

The A11 originally ran through the centre of all three towns giving rise to congestion which frequently became the focus of delays on the route.

One-way cycle tracks run along either side of the A11 through Whitechapel, Mile End, and Bow, carrying cyclists from the City to Stratford.

East of Bow, C2 runs along either side of the A118 to Stratford station, and cycle lanes are provided as far as Ilford.

Running northeast, the Pedalway is signposted along a shared-use path adjacent to the Newmarket-bound (westbound) carriageway.

[7] The Labour government's Secretary of State for Transport announced the scheme would be brought forward by 18 months to 2010 with an open date of 2013 in November 2008 in response to the Financial crisis of 2007–2008.

[8] Supporters expressed concern in September 2010 that the scheme would be cancelled as part of the coalition government's comprehensive spending review noting that the report from the public inquiry had not yet been signed off by the Department for Transport.

[12] Environmental campaign groups believed that in a time of economic downturn it would be better to invest in local public transport rather than on costly road schemes.

The full dual carriageway between Barton Mills and Thetford was opened on 12 December 2014 by transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin.

The old A11 then becomes Leytonstone Road; Maryland railway station turns northwards on the corner where the name change occurs.

Once past the Green Man Interchange, the former A11 route enters the London Borough of Redbridge and briefly becomes a southern extension to the A113 before turning into the A1199 (a duplicate designation, given that there is another A1199 in Islington), and is called Hollybush Hill, Woodford Road and High Road Woodford Green.

It crosses over the A406 at Gates Corner (named after a Ford car showroom, which was turned into residential flats in 2006), but since the A406 was widened when the M11 was constructed there are no slip roads for interchange and the old A11 passes over the top.

The road then becomes the A1184 and goes through Sawbridgeworth: through the rest of the Essex stretch between Harlow and Stump Cross the road follows a more traditionally English course, characterised by bends of varying and sometimes uneven radii, with just one straight mile (1.6 km) (to the south of Littlebury) along the north Essex stretch.