Lower Thames Crossing minor refinement consultation 2023

Overview

About the Lower Thames Crossing

National Highways is proposing a new road and tunnel, the A122 Lower Thames Crossing. It would connect to the A2 and M2 in Kent, passing through a tunnel under the River Thames, before linking to the A13 in Thurrock and junction 29 of the M25 in the London Borough of Havering, north of the Thames.

It would be approximately 23km long, with 4.25km of this in tunnels under the Thames. The tunnels would be located to the east of the village of Chalk on the south side of the Thames, and to the west of East Tilbury on the north side.

Lower Thames Crossing minor refinement consultation 2023

We’re holding this minor refinement consultation to seek your feedback on a small number of minor changes we are proposing to make to our Development Consent Order (DCO) Application. These are localised in nature and small in extent, with only minimal change to the impacts which we reported in our DCO Application. We have highlighted any change in those impacts within the consultation booklet.

Chapter 3 of the consultation booklet sets out the changes we are seeking your feedback on as part of this consultation. Starting from south to north these are:

• Reduction of Nitrogen Deposition compensation area and Order Limits at Blue Bell Hill and Burham
• Increase in limits of deviation for the northern tunnel entrance headwall
• Revised utility proposals at East Tilbury (three changes)

Chapter 4 of the consultation booklet provides a construction update, setting out how the tunnels beneath the River Thames could be constructed by either two tunnel boring machines, or by using a single tunnel boring machine to construct both.

We have also reduced the Order Limits to reflect the changes we are proposing, see Figure 3.1 on page 5 of the booklet for further information.

We submitted our DCO Application to the Planning Inspectorate on 31 October 2022 to secure consent to construct and operate the A122 Lower Thames Crossing (the Project). Our DCO Application was accepted for Examination on the 28 November 2022. Find out more about the application and how to engage in the DCO process.

A panel of five independent Inspectors has been appointed as the Examining Authority to examine our application on behalf of the Secretary of State for Transport. They will review the evidence submitted and listen to issues raised. 

Since the submission of the DCO Application, the Lower Thames Crossing team has identified some minor changes to the Project. These are as a result of ongoing engagement with landowners and other stakeholders, and further design refinement.

Through this consultation, we want to let you know about the proposed changes and provide an opportunity for feedback to be given in relation to them.  We will consider all responses before submitting any request to the Examining Authority to incorporate these changes into the DCO examination process.

If these changes are accepted by the Examining Authority, they will be considered during the examination of the DCO Application. 

How to have your say

Please only use the following official response channels. We cannot guarantee that responses sent to any other address will be included in our analysis.

Online
The easiest way to give us your views is by completing this online survey.

Email
Send your comments or downloaded response form to consultationresponses@lowerthamescrossing.co.uk

Post
If you would prefer to have a printed copy of the consultation document and response form, as well as a pre-paid return envelope, these are available to order free of charge (one pack per household), using one of the following methods:

• Email: National Highways via info@lowerthamescrossing.co.uk
• Telephone: National Highways on 0300 123 5000

You can also use these contact details if you are having difficulties understanding or accessing the consultation materials, or you have any questions about the consultation process.

Send a printed response form or print out the response form and post to the following address: 

Consultation Response LTC
Pilgrims Lane
Chafford Hundred
Grays
RM16 6RL

Unless using a pre-paid envelope supplied by National Highways, respondents are required to pay appropriate delivery charges for responses sent to this address.

National Highways cannot guarantee that responses sent to any other address will be received.

How your response will be used
We will carefully consider all the responses we receive, and this will inform any change request we submit to the Examining Authority. If these changes are accepted by the Examining Authority they will be considered during the examination of the DCO Application.   

Please provide your feedback by 23:59 on 19 June 2023.
Any responses sent after this point may not be included in our analysis.

What happens next

Once we have received the full range of responses to the consultation, National Highways will undertake a programme of analysis and produce a consultation report.

This report will summarise and consolidate the feedback we have received. We will consider all responses before deciding whether to submit a request to the Examining Authority to incorporate into the DCO examination process any or all of the changes included in this consultation. If these changes are accepted by the Examining Authority, they will be considered during the examination of the DCO Application.