The route - Design changes
Overview
- Section 1: Foreword
- Section 2: What is the Lower Thames Crossing?
- Section 3: The story so far
- Section 4: Why the Lower Thames Crossing is so important
- Section 5: The route - Design changes
- Section 5: The route - South of the river in Kent
- Section 5: The route - The crossing
- Section 5: The route - North of the river in Thurrock and Essex
- Section 6: Local communities, landscapes and the environment
- Section 7: Building the crossing
- Section 8: Using the Lower Thames Crossing
- Section 9: Consultation and development consent
- Section 10: How to have your say
- Section 11: Events and further information
We have listened to your feedback on the preferred route, which the government announced in April 2017. Together with our own investigations, this has helped us to continue to assess and refine our proposals.
The responses we receive from stakeholders and communities during this consultation will continue to help us develop our designs further.
NOTE: Throughout this section we will refer to the Lower Thames Crossing as LTC. Images used throughout this section are illustrative for this consultation and may change in the future. The “after” pictures show locations 15 years following the opening of the LTC.
Did you know? A smart motorway uses technology to manage traffic flow.
Design changes
Road height – we have lowered the height of the road in some locations by as much as 5-6 metres to reduce its visual impact. This change was made following feedback from the 2016 consultation.
More Information
Number of lanes – the route will be a motorway with three lanes in each direction, along the whole route from the M25 to the A2. It will have no hard shoulders in common with smart motorways. This will provide enough capacity for peak hours and to meet future demand. It will reduce journey times across the Thames and increase capacity for road users across the river by more than 90% east of London.
Design changes
(Click on the map below to reveal information about our design changes)
Find out more
To find out about the options considered, see Approach to Design, Construction and Operation.
Road terms explained
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| Viaduct: an elevated road bridge supported by pillars. | Embankment: a wall of earth or stones to support a road, or to stop water from flooding an area. | Cutting: when a road is to go below existing ground, the soil or rock is removed, either altogether or to form landscape embankments on each side. |
The route explained
For the purpose of describing the route in more detail, we have divided it into three sections:
- South of the river in Kent – M2/A2 junction
- The crossing
- North of the river in Thurrock and Essex – Tilbury junction, A13 junction, LTC/M25 junction, M25 junction 29
More Information
First we will describe our proposals from the south of the river, then the crossing, and lastly north of the river.
Continue to the next section: Section 5: The route - South of the river in Kent
Read more
- Section 1: Foreword
- Section 2: What is the Lower Thames Crossing?
- Section 3: The story so far
- Section 4: Why the Lower Thames Crossing is so important
- Section 5: The route - Design changes
- Section 5: The route - South of the river in Kent
- Section 5: The route - The crossing
- Section 5: The route - North of the river in Thurrock and Essex
- Section 6: Local communities, landscapes and the environment
- Section 7: Building the crossing
- Section 8: Using the Lower Thames Crossing
- Section 9: Consultation and development consent
- Section 10: How to have your say
- Section 11: Events and further information
Audiences
- Anyone from any background
Interests
- Roads