M20 motorway

M20 motorway in the UK
map
Basic data
Operator:	Highways Agency
Overall length:	81.4 km (50.6  mi )
Countries :	England
Development condition:	six lanes
M20, Aylesford, Kent
Course of the road Kent On to  London Start of the Autobahn (1)  The NORTH , The WEST, Dartford Crossing , Swanley B2173 (2)  Paddock Wood , Wrotham , Gravesend , Tonbridge ( HAS London) (3)  Gatwick , Heathrow , Sevenoaks ( ABG Folkestone) (4)  New Hythe , Rochester , Tonbridge West Malling (5)  Aylesford , Maidstone (W) (6)  Maidstone (C), Chatham (7)  Maidstone, Ramsgate , Sheerness , Sittingbourne (8th)  Lenham , Maidstone (E) (8th)  Maidstone (at the previous junction) (9)  Ashford , Canterbury , Faversham , Tenterden (10)  Ashford, Brenzett, Canterbury (11)  Canterbury, Hastings , Hythe , Folkestone Race Course B2068 (11)  West hanger (at the previous junction) (11A)  Channel Tunnel (HAS London) (12)  Cheriton, Channel Tunnel (13)  Folkestone End of the highway On to  Dover

The M20 motorway ( English for 'M20 motorway') is a 81.4 kilometer long motorway in Kent . It runs from the M25 motorway ring around London to Folkestone and forms the main connection to the Eurotunnel and the port of Dover . Despite the lack of signs, it is part of Europastraße 15 .

history

The first section around Maidstone was built as a bypass in 1960-61. This makes it one of the oldest motorways in Great Britain. At that time, this section was numbered A20 (M), i.e. the A20 main road with motorway status (the old A20 was downgraded to A2020). It was not until 10 years later that construction was continued towards London around the town of Ditton; then the motorway was given the number M20 and the A20 was moved back to Maidstone. In 1981 the last gap in the North Downs was closed, so that a continuous connection from London to Maidstone was created.

In the same year, the section Ashford-Folkestone was opened to traffic, so only the 13-mile Maidstone-Ashford section was missing. At that time there was no urgent reason to build this section, as traffic to the ports on the English Channel used the M2 / A2 route via Canterbury . It was only with the construction of the Eurotunnel that the decision was made to build this section, which was opened in 1991 with the construction of a new junction (11A) for the Eurotunnel. At the same time, the A20 motorway-like road (opened in 1993) was built as a continuation from Folkestone to Dover .

Since the old A20 (M) was only four lanes, the now completed motorway was six lanes, the section around Maidstone became the bottleneck. In 1995 this was expanded to six lanes, creating additional lanes for local traffic between junctions 6 and 7.

Web links

Commons : M20 motorway  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• M20 on cbrd.co.uk

Coordinates: 51 ° 17 '22.3 "  N , 0 ° 32' 35.7"  E