Ministers have ordered a feasibility study into building a new £1-7.5bn Thames road crossing, after consultants found that measures to improve flows on the Dartford Crossing would only have ‘a small benefit’.
Transport minister, Andrew Adonis, said many more vehicles wanted to use the Essex-Kent link than it could accommodate, and congestion was likely to get worse ‘unless something is done’.
Consultants WSP and Parsons Brinckerhoff identified that half of motorists were being delayed by nine minutes or more for flows of only 3,000-plus at the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge and two tunnels under the Thames.
A typical four-lane motorway should support flows of 7,000 vehicles per hour, without motorists experiencing delays, the consultants stressed, indicating that tackling excessive weaving by redesigning the toll plazas, potentially removing one, could improve journey times.
Despite this, WSP and Parsons Brinckerhoff conclude that such measures to ‘make better use’ of the crossing would only ‘create marginal headroom’ in terms of increasing vehicle throughput.
They identified a need for extra capacity, given the high level of development and port growth planned for the Thames Gateway area – likely to mean that flows on the crossing would exceed 6,000 vehicles per hour for a fifth of year.
Lord Hanningfield, leader of Essex County Council, said it was ‘better late than never’ that the Government now recognised the need for additional capacity.
‘In the short-term, we are encouraged that it raises the prospect of scrapping tolls, although we have, for years, been pressing the Government to do this immediately, and in both directions.’
But the Campaign for Better Transport’s roads campaigner, Richard George, said: ‘The minister has a short memory. This Government’s last attempt to build a road bridge over the Thames was soundly defeated at public inquiry, less than two years ago.
‘Any new road bridge is likely to generate far more traffic than it can cope with, and make Essex and Kent even more car dependent.’
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