M25 motorway

M25 motorway in the UK
map
Basic data
Operator:	Highways Agency
Overall length:	188 km (116.8  mi )
Countries :	England
Development condition:	mostly eight lanes
The M25 near Heathrow Airport
Course of the road Kent Dartford Crossing : QEII Bridge (2,872 m) + Dartford Tunnels (1,430 m each) ( Thames ) 1 Dartford Crossing toll booth (1A)  Erith , Swanscombe (1B)  Dartford → (2)  London , Canterbury , Dartford, (3)  London (SE), Maidstone , Channel Tunnel , Dover , Swanley B2173 (4)  Bromley , Orpington (5)  Maidstone, Channel Tunnel, Dover, Sevenoaks , Hastings Surrey Clacket Lane (6)  East Grinstead , Eastbourne , Caterham , Godstone , Westerham , Redhill B2235 (7)  Gatwick Airport , Crawley , Brighton Croydon (8th)  Reigate , Sutton , Redhill, Kingston (9)  Leatherhead , Worthing Cobham Beginning of the VSL (Variable Speed ​​Limit) section (10)  London (SW), Kingston, Guildford (11)  Chertsey , Woking (12)  Basingstoke , Southampton , Richmond Runnymede Bridge ( Thames ) (13)  Staines , Egham (14)  Heathrow Airport , T4 & Cargo, T5 Buckinghamshire (15)  The WEST, Slough , Reading , London (W) Heathrow Airport (T1, 2 & 3) (16)  Birmingham , Oxford , Uxbridge , London (W) End of VSL (Variable Speed ​​Limit) section Hertfordshire (17)  Maple Cross, Rickmansworth (18)  Rickmansworth, Chorleywood , Amersham (19)  Watford (20)  Hemel Hempstead , Aylesbury (21)  The NORTH , Luton & Luton Airport (21A)  Watford, Harrow, St Albans , London (NW) ( ) (22)  London Colney , St Albans B556 (23)  Hatfield , London (NW), Barnet (23)  South Mimms (24)  Potter's Bar Greater London (25)  Enfield , Hertford Holmesdale Tunnel (600 m) lee Essex (26)  Waltham Abbey , Loughton Bell Common Tunnel (470 m) (27)  London (NE), Stansted Airport , Harlow , Cambridge Greater London (28)  Chelmsford , Romford , Brentwood (29)  Romford, Basildon , Southend Essex (30)  Thurrock (Lakeside), Tilbury , Dagenham , South Ockendon (30)  Thurrock (31)  Dagenham, South Ockendon → Dartford Crossing : QEII Bridge (2,872 m) + Dartford Tunnels (1,430 m each) ( Thames ) 1 1 Please note that Dartford Crossing appears at both the top and the bottom of the list.

The M25 motorway ( English for "Motorway M25") is a motorway in England . It runs in a ring around the British capital London , is 188 kilometers long and is also known as the "London Orbital". It is the second longest ring road in Europe after the Berliner Ring .

description

The M25 has eight lanes on most of the route , with four lanes in each direction . In November 2005, the M25 was expanded to ten lanes between junctions 12 and 14 and to twelve lanes between junctions 14 and 15. The most heavily used section is between junction 13 and 14 near Heathrow Airport , where an average of 196,000 vehicles per day were counted in 2003.

From a legal point of view, the M25 is not classified as a motorway throughout. The toll road crossing over and under the Thames east of London between Thurrock and Dartford is designated A282 . This section, known as the Dartford Crossing , was classified as a main road in order to enable vehicles to cross the route that are not permitted to use motorways. Otherwise they would have to make a long detour via Woolwich .

The road runs through several counties: Junctions 1 to 5 are in Kent , 6 to 14 in Surrey , 15 and 16 in Buckinghamshire , 17 to 24 in Hertfordshire , 25 and 29 in Greater London, and 26 to 28, 30 and 31 in Essex . Police work is carried out by a joint task force consisting of units from the affected police districts. These include the London Metropolitan Police , Thames Valley Police, Essex Police, Kent Police, Hertfordshire Constabulary and Surrey Police.

history

Initial traffic plans between 1937 and 1944 envisaged up to five ring roads around London. Concrete plans for the London Ringways Plan in the 1960s took up these plans with four motorway rings . Due to massive protests against the destruction of living space, this plan was dropped in 1973 and only implemented in a reduced form. Parts of the two planned outer rings 3 and 4 were finally closed to form today's M25.

The ring was built in steps between 1975 and 1985, but not in one piece, but in smaller sections, such as B. between Dartford and Swanley (junctions 1 to 3) and between Potters Bar and Waltham Cross, which were later connected to each other. A separate planning right was required for each section, which had to be justified individually. In the maps of that time, the sections were referred to as "M16". The change to M25 was made before completion.

In October 1986 the M25 was opened with a ceremony by then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher . The opening took place between junction 22 “London Colney” and 23 “ South Mimms ”.

The total cost of construction was £ 631.9 million (€ 919.2 million). This does not include the cost of land purchase or expansion and maintenance work.

Web links

Commons : M25 motorway  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• CBRD Motorway Database - M25
• The Motorway Archives - M25. Archived from the original on July 20, 2009 ; accessed on May 9, 2017 . 
• Elsemarie Maletzke: The Ring of Terror. In: Die Zeit from March 1, 2012 No. 10

Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′  N , 0 ° 8 ′  W