Video a huge infrastructure project under a famous river: “The most important of the last generation”

Authorities in the UK have approved the construction of one of the most ambitious road infrastructure projects in the last decades in the UK and which are in the planning phase for almost 16 years.

The British government has approved the project of the National Road Company to achieve A122 Lower Thames Crossing (LTC) – a new high -speed road is estimated at over 9 billion pounds.

The longest road tunnels in the United Kingdom will pass under the Thames

The project would link A2 and M2 from Kent of A13 in Thurrock and the 29th intersection of the M25 from the London Hovering district. It will be about 23 kilometers long, of which 4.2 kilometers would be two tunnels under the Thames, tunnels that will be the longest road tunnels in the United Kingdom.

National Highways said the project “is the most important road project in the last generation”, reports highwaysagazine.co.uk

The construction should start from 2026, the new road to be opened in 2032.

The LTC project has been in planning for over 16 years. The BBC writes that the project was first discussed in 2009, and since then over 1.2 billion pounds have been spent from taxpayers for planning.

The second road crossing of the Thames to Eastern London

Lower Thames Crossing will practically become the second road crossing of the Tomisa River to London.

For over 60 years, Dartford Crossing was the only road crossing over the Thames, east of London, and is used “much more traffic than the one for which it was designed,” said National Highways, which turns it into a “blocking that causes delays and deviations that brake the country's economy.”

The road network operator said that the LTC mega-system will “stimulate the increase of mobility by solving the problem of long-term congestion from Dartford and by improving the connectivity between South-East, the Midlands region and the north of the United Kingdom.”

National Highways hopes that the new highway will reduce traffic at Dartford Crossing by 20% while road capacity over the Tomisa River will be practically doubled.

A MEGA highway with multiple lanes per direction and complex road nodes

The project provides for the realization of a highway of about 23 kilometers, 4 road knots and two 4.2 kilometers tunnels passing under the Thames.

At times it will be a mega-autostrada: at certain points it will have four lanes per direction, but also side collecting roads (with two lanes per direction) and huge road knots with the other high-speed roads with which they intersect. The tunnels will have three lanes per direction each.

To the north of the two tunnels under the Thames the highway will have three lanes per direction, but also free space in the median area for a future extension.

The LTC project was divided into three different sections for which the builders have already been announced, even if the project funding part has not yet been officially approved:

• Balfour Beatty delivers the road package to the north of the Thame
• Skanska received the Kent Roads contract in the summer of 2023, rated at 450 million pounds
• Bouygues-Murphy JV (BMJV) won the tunnel contract and access roads, worth 1.34 billion pounds.