New Dartford Crossing

[grumpy52]

Announced today ,It will be a tunnel,it will take ten years to build .
Is it too little too late ?
Knowing the amount of housing to be built around Dartford over the next few years I doubt that it will ease the problems in that area .
What is the projected traffic increase in the next 20 years and will it be over its capacity before it's finished?

[DS197]

There's much more of a need for the Silvertown crossing than this one imo

Edited by DS197 on Wednesday 12th April 14:49

[CoolHands]

10 years? What are they using, teaspoons?

[Dave Hedgehog]

CoolHands said:

10 years? What are they using, teaspoons?

it took what 20+ years to open the high speed rail link after the chunnel opened and they started stretches of it before the chunnel lol


we are in desperate need of a thames river crossing near london, where this one is going totally missus the mark

[aeropilot]

Its not a new Dartford crossing though

Its a new Thames crossing, but its not at Dartford.

And yes, its too late, all our much needed infrastructure is too late in the UK, as they are constantly delayed by political and legal (NIMBY) issues that drag out the schemes for far too many years to be effective when get finished.

[grumpy52]

I am willing to bet it will be nearer 2030 before its finished .
Probably put back until that other waste of money ,the high speed rail line is compleated .

[Cold]

Is this one going to be sold to the French who then charge for its use?

[grumpy52]

I have no doubt that a toll will be imposed ,just until it's paid for you understand ,you know like last time .

[spaximus]

The interesting thing on this is that by the time it is finished, the Dartford Tunnels will need replacing, so it will solve nothing and at the same time the expansion of housing and business in the area will create even more traffic.

Why do we do things on the cheap and not do the right things. It is also insane this will take 10 years to build! I guess it will be 2 to build 8 to argue about it.

[aeropilot]

spaximus said:

It is also insane this will take 10 years to build! I guess it will be 2 to build 8 to argue about it.

That's about it.

It'll probably be another 2-3 years of public enquiry, arguments from NIMBY and eco-mentalists, and then maybe, just maybe they'll start on site digging a hole in about 4-5 years time to be finished in 10 years time.

[grumpy52]

Until emotions and political influence are removed from the decisions we will remain with an inadequate transport system .
All the planned road building from the 80's and 90's were abandoned to please the nimbys and greens more than the budgets .

[aeropilot]

grumpy52 said:

Until emotions and political influence are removed from the decisions we will remain with an inadequate transport system .

Correct.

But sadly never going to happen.

[BigLion]

Too many people and not enough space - we will never have a fit for purpose transport infrastructure.

[grumpy52]

If the need to commute was removed would this solve the problem .
But that would ruin much of the economy based on housing values and the over inflated house prices in many areas .

[anonymous-user]

DS197 said:

There's much more of a need for the Silvertown crossing than this one imo

Edited by DS197 on Wednesday 12th April 14:49

I'd say if they were serious about a decent road network, they'd build one at Silvertown and one at Shorne. By the time the new one at Shorne is built, there'll be a garden city next to Bluewater and Paramount Studios just down the road, one pile up amongst that lot and I think we can guess what the result will be.

[mybrainhurts]

Just get the Chinese to do it the Chinese way....

Knock on doors...kick people out...knock down houses.

Job's a good 'un...

[Monkeylegend]

No point in building the bloody thing in China though.

[GroundEffect]

Bloody thing can't come soon enough - travelled from Orpington to Basildon yesterday. Normally takes about 45-50 mins. Yesterday it took 3 hours as someone had broken down in the tunnel.

[DonkeyApple]

What they really need to do is link two or three of the north side motorways as they hit the M25 with ones on the south side so that commercial traffic can wholly bypass London and the M25.

[DIW35]

The problem with the current Dartford crossing isn't the crossing itself, but the fact that everyone has to slow down so that their number plate can be scanned.

If they got rid of the fees and made the crossing completely free flowing, it wouldn't suffer half the problems of congestion that it currently generates.