Dartford Crossing

Dartford Crossing as viewed north, just before the tunnel entrance

Queen Elizabeth II Bridge

The Dartford Crossing is the crossing over or under the Thames on the M25 London ring road east of London . It consists of two tunnels and a cable-stayed bridge " Queen Elizabeth II Bridge " , which connect Dartford in Kent on the south bank with Grays in Essex on the north bank. Dartford Crossing is the last road crossing over the Thames before its mouth into the North Sea .

Details

The two tunnels are open to traffic in a northerly direction, vehicles heading south are directed over the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge .

Dartford Crossing is built like a motorway and is basically part of the M25 London ring road. However, the section is classified as a main road so that it is also available for crossing with vehicles that are not allowed to use motorways. The so-called main road A282 extends in the south from the junction with the A2, junction 2 "Darenth Interchange ", to the junction with the A13 in the north, junction 30 " Mar Dyke Interchange" .

Emergence

The county councils of Essex and Kent introduced a bill to build the first tunnel in 1929. An exploratory tunnel approved in 1936 was completed two years later, but the Second World War initially prevented further construction work. Work resumed in 1955 and the first tunnel was officially opened in November 1963.

It soon turned out that the capacity of the tunnel was too small. After eight years of construction, the second tunnel went into operation in May 1980.

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

Traffic significance

Dartford Crossing is the UK's busiest river crossing . Due to its geographical location on the lower reaches of the Thames, it is part of the most convenient road connection between the crossings of the English Channel around Dover and the center and the north of Great Britain . Up to March 31, 2014, a total of around 1.49 billion vehicles had been counted, with the busiest day being July 23, 2004 with 181,990 vehicles. The daily average was around 136,000 vehicles. Toll receipts for the year ended March 31, 2012 were approximately £ 72.1 million and for the following year it was approximately £ 80.3 million.

toll

Use of Dartford Crossing is toll during the day . The fees per crossing are currently (as of March 15, 2020):

Vehicle type	6:00 am to 10:00 pm, single payment	6:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m., credit account	10:00 pm - 6:00 am
Two-wheelers quads	free	free	free
Cars, station wagons, also with trailers, minibuses with up to 9 seats	£ 2.50 each	£ 2.00 each	free
Pickup truck with 2 axles	£ 3.00 each	£ 2.63	free
Trucks from 3 axles buses	£ 6.00 each	£ 5.19	free

Vehicles of severely disabled people with a blue parking permit are exempt from the toll.

Until November 2014, the toll was mainly paid in cash, for which partly manned and partly automatically operated toll stations were set up in both directions at the southern end of the crossings. In front of these stations there were congestion, some kilometers long, every day. On November 30, 2014, the company switched completely to cashless payment via automatic license plate recognition and the toll stations were dismantled. Since then, a credit account can either be set up for vehicles or the toll can be paid individually via payment services - the latter no later than the day after use. Residents of the region can also buy prepaid stamps that are read out automatically. Fine proceedings for non-payment are also pursued in other European countries. The penalty charge was £ 70 in 2018 and increased to £ 105 after 28 days.

The new toll system has been heavily criticized since the changeover. Even the mostly internet-based payment methods offered by the operator are viewed with skepticism. In the first four months, 228,000 foreign vehicles were registered for which no payments were received. Critics complain that the toll road signs at the crossing are insufficient or unclear. Although there are references to the operator Dart Charge and the white C on a red circle known from London for the obligation to pay the congestion charge , there is no explicit reference to a toll requirement for the river crossing. Up until 2016, the operator assumed that the “ toll evaders ” were not acting deliberately, but were not aware of the toll obligation , and in some cases waived the threatened fines within 14 days of subsequent payment.

The British automobile association Automobile Association also fundamentally criticizes the fact that the toll obligation for the transition should only cover the costs of the bridge when it was introduced and should therefore have been abolished in 2003.