Tag Archives: Lower Thames Crossing

Lower Thames Crossing – An Example of UK Planning Ineptitude

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The Lower Thames Crossing tunnel has been under consideration, but not actual construction, for many years. It would relieve traffic congestion on the A2 and M25 by allowing traffic to avoid the Dartford Crossing. Many people, including me, would benefit, but this is what the FT had to say recently on the planning impediments to getting the project moving forward:

“Lower Thames Crossing has cost £1.2bn even before construction starts. The scheme to build a 14-mile road and tunnel to connect Kent and Essex has become a totem of Britain’s snarled-up planning system, in which ventures are tied up with years of delays and mountains of expensive compliance documents.

The planning document for the project — the first wholly-new Thames river crossing east of London in 60 years — runs to 359,070 pages, while around 150 staff are employed on the project, as well as an eight-strong management team.”

Comment: This is a typical example of UK management incompetence with overpaid consultants creaming off enormous fees and delaying projects while environmental concerns are exaggerated by pressure groups.

See FT article here for more information: https://www.ft.com/content/917d4b7f-318e-46fe-ba44-664551ebcf13

Will I see it completed in my lifetime? It seems doubtful.

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/Drivers_London )

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Heathrow Expansion, Lower Thames Crossing and Just Stop Oil Sentences

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The Chancellor is backing the expansion of London Heathrow Airport with a third runway. This has of course been proposed in the past but plans have always been thwarted by political and legal opposition. Rachel Reeves believes it would assist her plans to grow the economy, and it should be pushed through. Even if she manages to overcome all the hurdles it could be many years before we see the new runway.

Is it necessary and a good thing? The issue to my mind has always been the increased noise and pollution from expanding this airport in a London suburb. A much better plan has always been to build a new airport to the east of London on Maplin Sands or elsewhere in Essex/Kent. 

Other alternatives are expansion of Stansted, Luton or Gatwick airports, or even better, expand regional airports. Is it really necessary to have people travelling from all over the UK to Heathrow just to catch a plane to their ultimate destination? It is not and the financial cost of expanding Heathrow is enormous – for example it requires major alterations to the M25/M4 which will add months of disruption to key roads.

I have always opposed Heathrow expansion and will continue to do so because of opposition to the noise that it causes that affects a very wide area of London. Heathrow Airport is also one to avoid in my opinion by any sensible traveller.

Lower Thames Crossing

Apparently the Chancellor is looking at a private finance deal to get the Lower Thames Crossing built. This is a tunnel near Tilbury to divert traffic from the Channel ports to avoid them using the M25 and Dartford Crossing. This is a very worthwhile project that makes a lot more sense than expanding Heathrow Airport.

Just Stop Oil Appeals

Yesterday appeals were heard in the Court of Appeal over the sentences on Just Stop Oil protestors who blocked the M25 for 4 days. That included 5 years for Roger Hallam who helped to organise the protest. Were the sentences justified? Well the cost imposed on the millions of road users who use the M25, and the general inconvenience caused do justify stiff sentences in my opinion. That is particularly so after Hallam in April 2024 was given a suspended two-year sentence for attempting to block Heathrow Airport with drones. Basically he and his supporters are persistently attempting to disrupt normal life. These are not “peaceful” protests – they aim to cause the maximum disruption they can just in the cause of bringing their views into public attention.

I hope the Appeal Court will not be sympathetic.

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/Drivers_London )

You can obtain notifications of new posts in future by following me on Twitter (now “X”) – see https://x.com/Drivers_London where new posts are usually mentioned.

Lower Thames Crossing Consultation

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Highways England have launched a new public consultation on the Lower Thames Crossing. A number of changes have been made after a previous consultation. This tunnel under the Thames east of the Dartford Crossing will relieve traffic congestion on the M25 and cope with the large increase in housing and businesses east of London and in Kent/Essex.

See https://ltcconsultation.highwaysengland.co.uk/ for the consultation and how to respond.

Our main response to the consultation was to encourage them to get on and build it! But those living near to the route may have more detailed comments.

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New Lower Thames Crossing – Public Consultation Available

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The Highways Agency have been developing plans for a new Thames crossing east of the Dartford Crossing. This will relieve traffic at the Dartford Crossing which is often heavily congested even after the introduction of the free-flow charging system. The Highways Agency has published revised plans for a three-lane road including a 2.4-mile long tunnel under the Thames which will be the longest in the UK.

The new crossing will link the M2 near Rochester, Kent with the M25 in Essex and will help to provide better network connections for the growing housing and business developments in Kent and improved access to the Channel ports for the rest of the country.

The proposals include some improvements to the M2/A2 which is often heavily congested although those enhancements seem somewhat limited in scope.

It is also proposed to introduce a free-flow charging system similar to that at the Dartford Crossing to which we have objected because many people fail to pay with such systems and collect a fine as a result. We suggest the crossing should be free (as the Severn bridges have been made recently), as should the Dartford one be, and as all major network routes should be.

There is a public consultation on the proposals here which you can respond to – please do so: https://highwaysengland.citizenspace.com/ltc/consultation/

We also suggest that you should urge the Highways Agency to get on with it as soon as possible (earlier than the proposed 2027 completion date preferably).

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Thames Crossings – One Closer But Another In Doubt

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The Department for Transport (DfT) have announced their preferred route for a new Lower Thames Crossing to relieve congestion on the Eastern side of the M25. Other options have been discarded and the chosen route is leaving the M25 at North Ockendon, via Orsett and Tilbury, a tunnel under the Thames and linking to the A2 near Shorne (the start of the M2). This route will mean that traffic from the Channel Ports will be able to avoid the Dartford Crossing area altogether. Money will also be spent on widening the A13 and on improving roads around the Dartford Crossing.

No timescale for delivery has been given and it might take as long as ten years, assuming the Government can actually find the money to build it.

As expected, not everyone is happy with the chosen route citing more air pollution, take up of green landscape and the impact on local communities. But it was always going to be a difficult choice when some action surely needed to be taken to cope with the projected extra demand on the existing river crossings. There was a large number of responses to the consultation on Route “C” to which we responded – we supported option “C” with some additional suggestions. You can see all the responses in a document on the web.

The Thames Garden Bridge in central London now looks even less likely to proceed even though £46 million has already been spent on it after a damning report commissioned by Major Sadiq Khan. Written by Labour MP Margaret Hodge it suggested the project should be scrapped. She suggested it would have difficulty raising the funds (projected cost now about £200 million) and would not be able to cover its running costs and hence might require a Government bail-out.

Comment: as in my previous report on this project, I can see many better uses for the money that spending it on this “vanity” project.

Roger Lawson