M25 motorway
Template: Infobox trunk road / Maintenance / GB -M
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The M25 motorway (English for, M25 ') is a motorway in England. She leads a ring around the British capital London around 188 kilometers long and is also called " London Orbital " called. She is one of the longest ring roads of the world, Europe 's second longest after the Berlin ring.
Description
In the vast majority of the route is M 25 six lanes ( three lanes in each direction). However, there are also sections with four tracks, while there are eight tracks in the southwestern area ( one-sixth of the total length ). The highway was extended to twelve tracks in November 2005, between junctions 12 and 14 on ten tracks and between junctions 14 and 15. In the period 2011-12 the motorway between junctions 16 and 23, and 27 and 30 has been gradually expanded eight lanes. The road authority Highways Agency initially planned to expand the remaining sections of the M 25 on eight tracks, but in 2009 these plans were discarded. For the remaining routes now is the use of a traffic control system, which releases at peak times the emergency lane traffic planned.
The most heavily loaded section is close to Heathrow Airport between junctions 13 and 14, where an average of 196,000 vehicles per day were counted in 2003.
Legally, the M 25 is not quite a continuous ring road. The toll crossing of the River Thames between Thurrock and Dartford east of London carries the designation A 282 The classification referred to as the Dartford Crossing section as the main road is done primarily for practical reasons. This is also important vehicles that are not approved for highways, the use of transition are possible, since this would otherwise have to make a long detour over Woolwich.
The road runs through several administrative districts: The connection points 1-5 are in Kent, 6-14 in Surrey, 15 and 16 in Buckinghamshire, 17 to 24 in Hertfordshire, 25 and 29 in Greater London, 26 to 28 and 30 and 31 in Essex. Police work is carried out by a joint task force consisting of the units of the affected police districts. Among them are the London Metropolitan Police, Thames Valley Police, Essex Police, Kent Police, Hertfordshire Constabulary and Surrey Police.
History
The ring was built in stages between 1975 and 1985. The cuts were not built in one piece, but in smaller portions so as between Dartford and Swanley (junction 1 to 3) and between Potters Bar and Waltham Cross, and later connected. For each section its own planning law was needed and was individually justified. The maps of that time, which showed the short cuts, the track "M 16" called, but that changed before completion.
The M 25 was opened by Margaret Thatcher in October 1986 with a ceremony. The opening took place between junctions 22 (London Colney ) and 23 (South Mimms ).
The M 25 cost a total of 631.9 million pounds ( 919.2 million euros ). This does not include the cost of land acquisition and development and maintenance.