Review starts on £100m upgrade for roundabout
A £100 million upgrade of a notoriously busy junction will not include a flyover.
The A249 Stockbury roundabout is to be improved, boosting the capacity of the M2 junction to ease congestion for drivers at Junction 5.
Highways England is hosting a series of consultation events from today (Wednesday) until Tuesday, October 17.
The closing time for responses will be 11.59pm on the last day.
People will be asked for feedback on the proposals, which Highways England says aims to reduce congestion, improve journey times and boost local economic growth.
The agency said it considered 12 options for an upgraded Stockbury roundabout, nine of which were subsequently discounted.
The three “best-performing” options then became the agency’s focus, but it concluded two of these would be “too expensive”.
A flyover was one of the options, but this would have cost about £158 million. The chosen option includes: An enlarged M2 Junction 5/ A249 Stockbury Roundabout to provide a new through-route for A249 traffic, with traffic light controls.
New dedicated left-turn lanes for traffic travelling from the A249 Maidstone-bound to the M2 London-bound and from the A249 Sheppey-bound to the M2 coast-bound.
New single-lane slip road from the M2 coast-bound to the A249 Sheppey-bound which would avoid the M2 Junction 5/A249 Stockbury Roundabout altogether.
The existing connection from the Maidstone Road to the A249 Stockbury Roundabout would be closed, and Maidstone Road would be re-routed to link with Oad Street.
The existing junction of Oad Street with the A249 would be closed. A new link would be provided south of the existing Oad Street to connect directly with A249 Stockbury Roundabout.
The Honeycrock Hill junction with the A249 would be closed for safety reasons.
The highest expected cost of this option is just over the £100 million budget at £102 million.
Once the consultation has finished, a preferred route announcement will be revealed in early 2018 and a planning application will be submitted that winter.
If planning consent is granted, construction will start in 2020/2021, a year later than originally planned, with the new road layout fully open for traffic in 2022.
Last month, the agency sent about 126,000 letters to homes on Sheppey and in Sittingbourne, Medway, Maidstone and Aylesford, urging people to get involved.
Another 150 were sent to councillors and more than 230 emails to other interested parties.
Highways England said it could not confirm how much the entire consultation has cost until it was over.