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Moveable barriers ml ht replace Stack A MOVEABLE concrete barrier
Page 8
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might be installed on the M20 in Kent to improve the emergency queuing system for trucks waiting to cross the Channel.
The Highways Agency is due to publish a feasibility study later this year on whether the atm investment is justified or whether the existing system, Operation Stack, should be retained.
This uses the coast-bound M20 for lorry parking and diverts nonfreight traffic onto the A20, which causes severe congestion. Two other options are being considered to cope with huge queues of trucks inevitably caused by disruption to cross-Channel ferries and the Channel Tunnel.
One of these options involves identifying a site for a giant truck park near the motorway; the other is to close the coast-bound carriageway for truck parking but, instead of diverting traffic on to the A20,setting up a contralllow on the London-bound carriageway. However, when this was tried at Easter it cost 2.308,000. Moveable barriers are untried in the UK hut a Highways Agency spokesman says they can be put in place more quickly than cones and do not need a buffer lane between opposing flows of traffic.
Mick Sutch , Kent County Council's head of planning and transport strategy, says: "The crunch comes in trying to justify the cost. The trouble with Operation Stack is it is unpredictable.
"There were 17 occurrences between January and Easter and since then we've had none."