Unwelcome delays to M20 junction roadworks

We reported last week that highways bosses have admitted junction 10a on the M20 will not open before the Brexit deadline of October 31, sparking fears of traffic chaos across Ashford.

Here are some comments on the issue from readers of our website, KentOnline and our Facebook page.

Barry John Kennedy wrote: This junction is a bit like Brexit itself, who knows when and where it will happen. Meanwhile, the ordinary people will be the ones that suffer, as usual!

Not only this junction but also Operation Brock will come into place at the same time.

Sally Barter wrote:

Traffic chaos in Ashford - as if that’s anything new!

Just sick of never being able to get from A to B in the south east without being held up roadworks.

Antony Gledhill wrote:

How much better will it be when the roadworks are eventually done?

Glenn Lane wrote:

It’s the M20, its always been a nightmare, even before Brexit was even mentioned and it will carry on being a nightmare, regardless.

Colin Jon wrote:

So foreign HGVs will still be able to speed through the roadworks because police admit they don’t even try to pursue them.

What a shambles and laughing stock our road network has become.

Johnno wrote:

We British could not contract any major company to construct a toilet and get it completed without it running months overdue and at twice the original costing.

Yet the Chinese build massive cable stay and suspension bridges, hydro-electric dams and airports within budget and ahead of schedule, with no problems and a good product.

What is wrong with us?

Barn Find wrote:

Something to do with not being allowed to use convict labour and having a minimum wage on one side and a government procurement policy geared around fair payment for work done on the other.

Remember government infrastructure projects are about putting money into the economy to fuel growth and not really about wonderful benefits which rarely end up

BTCLUMP wrote:

Can anyone tell us what the original completion date was? Being a government / Highways England project, six months overrun and 50% overspend should have been factored in.

SuperBigDave wrote:

It won’t tackle congestion, it’s the same junction 400 yards further along. If you want to get rid of the congestion, get rid of the traffic lights.

“...and bring huge benefits for the town”. Where ‘benefits’ equals opening up more land to build houses on.

Couldn’t do that if 10a wasn’t built.

Richard Jones wrote:

Why can’t they just say, ‘it wont be open until at least November’?

Have to put the ‘Brexit’ dig in there to make it sound like its the end of the world.

PeteMK wrote:

Maybe they should have left

mond wrote:

Junction 10a was just someone’s vanity project. It won’t help because all it does is shift the traffic all down to the Orbital roundabout, which is and will be the problem with that truck stop and new development. Junction 10a should have connected with the back of the truckstop, thereby removing all lorry traffic from Junction 10 and stopping the Orbital roundabout from getting blocked by lorries exiting it, which happens every day.

This is blindingly obvious to anyone that uses these roads.

Harry palms wrote:

When central government offers large sums of money to local councils to build housing estates in rural areas, then you get councils spending their money for the sake of it. How many new projects in Ashford alone are funded by this money that have no benefit for locals?