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M25 plan is 'too little too late'
Page 10
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Nearly El 40m will be spent on improving the M25 in Kent, but local hauliers warn that it's a waste of time. Guy Sheppard reports.
KENT OPERATORS say a £.138m road improvement scheme near the Dartford Crossing designed to reduce traffic congestion will be too little, too late.
Work to provide an extra lane in both directions on the M25 between Junctions lb and 3, and on the A2 between Bean and the M25, should start early next year.
Some operators say these roads need to be expanded from the current three lanes to at least five.
Paul Denyer, operations manager of Alan Firmin near Maidstone, says: -When you think about the chaos it causes during the work to put it in, you wonder whether it's worth it for one lane.
William Pucknell, MD of Rochester-based WSG Transport, agrees: "When it's done, it won't make any difference at all because it just fills up with traffic.
He suggests that increasing the capacity of the Dartford Crossing and its approach roads would have a bigger impact on congestion.
And Hugh Thompson, MD of Maidstone-based John Seymour Transport. says: "My feeling is that any widening is throwing money in the wrong direction. Junction improvements will have more impact."
The Highways Agency says an average of 137,000 vehicles a day travel along the M25 between Junetions 2 and 3,while the A2 between the M2.5 and Bean canies 120(XX).
This project is the first to win approval from a series of proposed schemes to widen the remaining three-lane sections of the M25.