Bids in for M25 gap
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• The Government will decide by the end of July which of eight bidders will get the contract to build the third Dartford crossing, clearing a bottleneck on the M25.
Transport Minister David Mitchell says the proposals will be assessed and evaluated carefully before a decision is made.
Although only eight bids were received, there are 11 engineering solutions, including five bridges, five immersed tube tunnels and one bored tunnel.
The bidders are Costain and Tarmac; Dartford Bridge Group (Sir Robert McAlpine); Dartford Joint Venture (Balfour Beatty and Taylor Woodrow); Dartford Tunnel Group (John Mowlem); Eurobridge; Laing-Christiani-Seven Seas; Trafalgar House; and Essex and Kent County Councils.
Most of the promoters have submitted alternative proposals for financing the scheme either from private or from public funds.
The bids have been submitted following a traffic study last year which indicated a third crossing would be needed by the early Nineties as a result of the completion of the M25.
Three alternative methods of financing the scheme are being considered; entirely financed by private funds and paid for by tolls; funded privately and then sold to the Government; or paid tor initially by the Government.
At a press conference on Monday, the Dartford Tunnel Group (DIG) explained its £230 million scheme.
It says that if the Government chooses its tender, traffic congestion on the M25 at Dartford will be eliminated within five years. If nothing is done, drivers will suffer delays of over an hour in 1990, it says.
"There is urgent need for this project to be carried out," Mowlem chairman Philip Beck said.
If the DTG wins, it says that the new tunnel will be open in 1990 or 1991, whichever the Government chooses.
DTG's proposals envisage the design, construction and financing of a new four-lane tunnel, the purchase of the two existing tunnels from their present owners (Kent and Essex Councils) and the management of the whole tunnel facility for a tenure of 18 or 25 years.
The new four-lane carriageway will carry traffic in one direction, while the existing bores will provide the four lanes for traffic moving in the opposite direction.
There ard to be more to booths to cope with the ex pected 27 million vehicles using the tunnel every yea; by 1990, but no more drivi facilities. Around 17% of tt vehicles are expected to bo lorries.
At present 22 million vehicles use the tunnel. Around 17% again are HG' which bring in 39% of the I nel's income.
If the Channel Tunnel gc ahead and becomes operational in the mid-Nineties, I will dramatically boost HG1 traffic through the Dartford Tunnel, Mowlem finance director Roger Sainsbury s DTG pledges that until t third bore's completion the will be no increase in the p sent toll structure where HGVs with two axles pay I those with over two axles' £1.60 and cars pay 60p.