Busy road reopens after vital £70 million upgrade
It has taken three years and cost more than £70 million but one of the county’s busiest stretches of road has officially reopened after a vital upgrade.
The work on the A21 between Tonbridge and Pembury should ease congestion for the 35,000 vehicles that will use it every day and improve connections between London and Hastings.
It involved expanding 2.5 miles of single carriageway into two lanes, with three new junctions and four new bridges.
Last Thursday the ribbon was cut by Tonbridge and Malling MP Tom Tugendhat, at a ceremony in Southborough attended by representatives from Highways England, Balfour Beatty, Kent County Council, and Tonbridge and Malling and Tunbridge Wells borough councils.
Mr Tugendhat said: “For decades this road has suffered from severe congestion and the new route should mean such frequent delays are a thing of the past.”
Work started in April 2015 and was originally expected to fin- ish in December 2016. However setbacks – including the discovery of more than 35,000 tonnes of asbestos-contaminated soil – delayed completion.
The extra work took the scheme over its £69.7m budget, but full details of the overspend have not yet been released.
As part of the project, Highways England compulsorily purchased four houses and offered those living there compensation.
The scheme also involved moving a Grade II listed barn at May Day Farm, which is going to be rebuilt at Weald and Downland Open Air Museum in Singleton, West Sussex.
Tunbridge Wells MP Greg Clark first announced dualling was going ahead in June 2009, after approval by the then Labour Transport Secretary Lord Adonis. It was cancelled in 2010 by the incoming Tory government. Prior to that, in 1997, a Tory-developed scheme was cancelled by Tony Blair’s government.
Last Thursday, Mr Clark said: “We have all campaigned long and hard for the dualling of the A21. Already the old narrow, dark and dangerous road seems a distant memory.”