Dartford Crossing

With the collective term Dartford Crossing two tunnels and a cable-stayed bridge on the River Thames east of London are called. Connect Grays in Essex on the north side of Dartford in Kent on the south side.

The tunnels are used to transport in a northerly direction, while the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge is the traffic subject to the south. It is the easternmost road crossing of the River Thames and the three buildings form part of the London orbital motorway, the M25.

The toll river crossing is, however, legally speaking, no highway, but carries the main road designation A282. This classification is done primarily for practical reasons. This is intended to vehicles that are not approved for highways, also the use to be made ​​possible, since this would otherwise take a long detour.

History

1929 brought the county administrations of Essex and Kent, type a legislative proposal to build a tunnel. A 1936 approved exploratory tunnel was completed two years later, however, the Second World War prevented further construction for the time being. 1955 that work was resumed, and in November 1963 the first tunnel was officially opened. It soon turned out that the capacity of the tunnel was sized too small. After eight years of construction was in May 1980, the second tunnel in operation.

With the completion of the ring road in 1986, the traffic increased again significantly. For this reason, began in August 1988, the construction of the parallel four-lane Queen Elizabeth II Bridge. At the time of opening on 30 October 1991 by Queen Elizabeth II, named after its bridge with a length of 450 m was the longest cable-stayed bridge in Europe. Together with the access viaducts on both sides it reaches a total length of 2852 m.

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