Hope for improved road surface on noisy motorway
It has been more than a quarter of a century since the M20 opened between Leeds and Ashford – and nearly as long since neighbours began to complain about the noise.
Now, 26 years after it was built, an investigation is to be carried out on the troublesome stretch – offering hope to residents that the ribbed concrete will be replaced with a quieter surface.
Two parts of carriageway between junctions 8 and 9 are due to be retextured between 2017 and 2019 to improve safety, although this would retain the ribbed concrete and have little or no impact on sound.
They include Harrietsham, between Chegworth Lane to Fairbourne Lane, and the last two miles of motorway before the Ashford junction.
But with Highways England set to carry out a separate full inspection of the 26-mile section, Faversham and Mid Kent MP Helen Whately has urged the government to consider an entirely new surface.
Helen Whately, MP for Faversham and Mid Kent, wrote to roads minister John Hayes in December urging him to upgrade the surface, which she said was blighting the lives of villagers in Hollingbourne and Harrietsham.
She told the Kent Messenger: “I hope this inspection confirms what people tell me, and what I’ve experienced myself: this part of the motorway is unacceptably loud. The government recently announced that it’s investing an extra £1.1. billion in the roads – I’m working to make sure some of this is used to improve the lives of my constituents.”
Hollingbourne parish councillor Alan Bennett said: “When you live in a rural environment you do like to think you can sit in your garden without being deafened. Anything that could be done to reduce the noise would be welcomed.”
The motorway was the last to be constructed using ribbed concrete, in 1991, after pleas from MPs who had experienced the “appalling high-pitched tyre whine”.
Successive governments had promised to lay a quieter surface when the road was next resurfaced, but to no effect.
A Highways England spokesman said: “We are committed to a quieter network and the need for noise mitigation is a standard consideration in all our schemes.
“We are aware of noise concerns along the M20. The investigations will focus on aspects including safety, noise and the environment and will inform the future planned resurfacing.”