M20 motorway

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The M20 is a motorway in Kent, England. It runs from the M25 motorway to Folkestone, providing a link to the Channel Tunnel and the ports at Dover. It is 50.6 miles (81.4km) long. Although not signposted in England, this road is part of the European route E15.

Route

The road starts at its junction with the M25 motorway and A20 road just east of Swanley, then continues south east across the River Darent, north of Farningham through the North Downs, past West Kingsdown and Wrotham to meet the M26. It then strikes east, running north of Addington. When it reaches Junction 4 it passes south of New Hythe and runs parallel to the Medway Valley railway line before crossing it close to junction 5. This next section is the Maidstone bypass. High Speed 1 then runs parallel to the motorway as it continues to the north of Bearsted, crosses the Swanley to Ashford (via Maidstone East) Line then out into the countryside alongside Leeds Castle. Proceeding south of Lenham and Charing it is crossed by the Ashford and CTRL railway lines before becoming the Ashford bypass. Travelling past Brabourne Lees it is once again joined by the CTRL and the River East Stour.

Just north of Saltwood it reaches the Channel Tunnel terminal and is crossed by HS1 for the last time. The final section runs along the northern suburbs of Folkestone.

History

Original Construction

The M20 was, in common with many United Kingdom motorways opened in stages:

Junctions 5 to 7 opened in 1960
Junctions 7 to 8 opened in 1961

These sections of the M20 were known as the Maidstone Bypass. This road was then numbered as the A20(M) as it bypassed the stretch of A20 through Maidstone which was renumbered A2020. This was the first stretch of motorway to open south of London. When the motorway was extended westwards towards London in the 1970s, it was renamed M20 and the A2020 reverted back to A20.

Junctions 3 to 5 in 1971
Junctions 1 to 2 in 1977

This section actually ended at a temporary junction near West Kingsdown.

Temporary Terminus to Junction 3 in 1980
Junctions 11 to 13 in 1981
Junctions 9 to 11 in 1981

This left the motorway in 2 sections, with the 14 mile gap running via the A20 - this was referred to locally as The Missing Link. The level of traffic was not considered necessary to complete the route. Most of the traffic for the channel ports was using the A2/M2 route. When the Channel Tunnel was ready for construction, it was decided to complete the M20 between Junctions 8 and 9 and this opened in 1991. Concurrent to this was the extension to Dover as part of the A20 which opened in 1993. A new junction was also constructed (11A) for the Channel Tunnel.

Widening

Following completion of the junction 8 to 9 section, the M20 was 3 lanes either side of the original A20(M) section. This was a bottleneck, so it was decided to widen this section of motorway. The road here was increased to a dual 3 or 4 lane road with 2 lane distributor roads either side. This section was opened in 1995.

Future Plans

Junction 10

Work on a £4.9 million scheme to tackle congestion at Junction 10 of the M20 near Ashford began in September 2006, due to be completed in summer 2007. Extra lane space is being provided for traffic joining and leaving the M20 motorway at the junction, in preparation for new development in the area. The bridges across the motorway will be modified to provide three lanes of traffic at the roundabout, and local approach roads will also be widened, with new traffic lights to control traffic flows at the junction between the A292 Hythe Road and the London-bound M20 entry slip road. A new footbridge will also be constructed across the motorway.

Junction 10a

The Highways Agency are to provide a new M20 Junction 10a and link road to the A2070 at Ashford in Kent, east of Junction 10 . This is to support the development of South Ashford, identified as a growth area in the South East.

Service Station

Planning permission for a second service station has been granted for a site at Junction 11 near Westenhanger - this will be an Extra Services site. Concessions are currently being let.

Operation Stack

''See main article: Operation Stack.

Since the opening of the Channel Tunnel sections of the M20 have been used occasionally for the implementation of Operation Stack, should the ferries or Channel Tunnel stop running. This closes that part of the motorway and uses the area as a lorry park until the ferries and Channel Tunnel are fully running again.

Junctions

M20 Motorway
Westbound exits	Junction	Eastbound exits
Road continues as A20 to London	J1	The NORTH, Dartford Crossing, The WEST M25 Swanley B2173
The NORTH, Dartford Crossing, The WEST M25 Swanley B2173	J1	Start of Motorway
No exit	J2	Paddock Wood, Wrotham A20 Gravesend, Tonbridge A227
The WEST, Gatwick (M23) Heathrow (M4) M26 (M25)	J3	No exit
West Malling, Rochester, Tonbridge A228	J4	West Malling, Rochester, New Hythe A228
Aylesford A20	J5	Maidstone, Aylesford A20
Maidstone, Chatham A229	J6	Maidstone, Chatham A229
Maidstone, Sittingbourne, Sheerness A249	J7	Maidstone, Sittingbourne, Sheerness, Ramsgate A249
Maidstone (E) A20 Maidstone Services	J8	Lenham A20 Maidstone Services
Ashford (W) A20 Tenterden, Canterbury A28 Faversham A251	J9	Ashford A20 Faversham A251
Ashford A292 Hastings A2070	J10	Ashford A292 Canterbury A28
Canterbury B2068 Hythe (A261) Stop24 Services	J11	Canterbury B2068 Hythe (A261) Stop24 Services
No exit	J11a	Channel Tunnel
Cheriton, Channel Tunnel A20	J12	Cheriton, Channel Tunnel A20
Start of Motorway	J13	Folkestone A20
Folkestone A20	J13	Road continues as A20 to Dover

References

External links

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Last updated on Sunday February 24, 2008 at 16:15:08 PST (GMT -0800)
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