Tunnel is set to cost more per mile than the high speed rail link. But 15 years in and a third of a billion pounds spent, work has yet to begin
Like grumbling about the weather, fretting over Britain’s failure to build major infrastructure has become a national pastime in recent years.is often the first to be held up as a shining example of the UK’s inability to get anything done and more recently become a symbol for the country’s apparent decline.
Ministers are eager to give the project the green light, but are hoping it can be delivered using private finance to keep it off the Treasury’s balance sheet. So the wait for a new Thames crossing goes on.While National Highways has been working on the Lower Thames Crossing for a staggering 15 years, the original conception for a new crossing east of Dartford dates back decades earlier to the Roads for Prosperity white paper published under the Thatcher administration in 1989.
Ben Hopkinson, director of research at the pro-growth think tank Britain Remade, said the UK’s planning process means any major infrastructure project can succumb to delays and associated costs if opponents are well organised and vigilant enough. Built in stages between the 1960s and early 1990s, the Dartford tunnel and cable-stayed Queen Elizabeth II bridge were designed for 135,000 vehicles a day, but already average around 160,000 a day, rising to 200,000 at peak times.The rise in congestion in and around the crossing has led to demands from local politicians and residents for the Government to push ahead with the new Lower Thames Crossing to ease the pressure on Dartford.
“We know it is not a silver bullet, and that the best way to get people out of their cars is to improve public transport, but if the Government is serious about fuelling growth then the Lower Thames Crossing has to be part of that.” She did not respond to requests for comment, but speaking about the crossing in the Commons chamber last week, she criticised the scheme on environmental grounds.
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