The £9 billion project has proven controversial despite hopes it will ease congestion.
Oliver Leader Saxe reports.
Oliver Leader Saxe reports.
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00:00Sunshine in the shadow of the Dartford Crossing.
00:04But give it a few hours and the roads and roundabouts here in Greenhithe
00:09will be clogged with traffic.
00:11I'm only walking the Amazon there.
00:14It takes me about five minutes, ten minutes to go there.
00:16When the traffic around us, it takes about one and a half hour to get there.
00:21So I drive to Bromley every day.
00:23So I do 20 miles.
00:24So literally I have to go past the Dartford Crossing every day.
00:28And probably three mornings out of seven, it actually impacts me a lot.
00:32So my journey is a 13-mile journey.
00:35It probably takes me an hour and ten minutes every day.
00:38Well, I'm an undercaptor.
00:40I have to work through the night to avoid the traffic.
00:42But sometimes, if you're lucky with a lot of things,
00:45if you're safe along the crossing, you just can't move anywhere, my dear.
00:48There is a glimmer of hope, however.
00:50This week the government approved a new £9 billion crossing
00:55between Kent and Essex.
00:58With the aim of easing pressure on the vital road link.
01:02Yeah, this is the number one priority for Dartford residents.
01:05When I knock on the door, as I do very regularly,
01:08or talk to people in the streets, in pubs, in my coffee mornings,
01:13the one thing they're united on is they want to see the Dartford Crossing happen.
01:18Because they live every day with the effects of gridlock.
01:21So they can't get to hospital appointments.
01:23Can't get the kids to school on time.
01:25A lot of people can't work in Essex
01:28because they can't rely on getting to work
01:31at a time when the employer expects them there.
01:34So that will all change with the Lower Thames Crossing.
01:37The congestion problems in this part of Kent come down to capacity.
01:41The Dartford Crossing was simply never meant to carry this much traffic.
01:46180,000 vehicles make the crossing every single day.
01:52Rather than the intended 135,000 freight companies in this part of Kent.
01:59Hope the Lower Thames Crossing will pave the way
02:02for faster travel between Essex and us here in the county.
02:07The Lower Thames Crossing is a really vital route for logistics.
02:11The current Dartford Crossing, as we all know,
02:14hugely suffers from regular delays and congestion.
02:17And 70% of the traffic heading to and from the Port of Dover
02:21uses the Dartford Crossing.
02:22So it's not just about an important piece of infrastructure in the southeast
02:26which will help alleviate congestion here,
02:28but it's also about the vital trade route
02:31that it also provides for the rest of the UK.
02:33Not everyone is convinced.
02:35Despite billions being required for the project,
02:38how much of this will fall on taxpayers or private investment is hard to say.
02:45It's going to cause seven years of construction chaos
02:49but only five years of relief at Dartford.
02:52It's absolute madness that we're spending 10, 12, probably 16 billion pounds in total
02:59with all the other schemes that we need to make it function.
03:02We might as well just dig a hole and chuck all the money in it
03:05for the good it's going to cause to us.
03:08It may not be a bridge over troubled waters,
03:10but the new crossing has certainly sent ripples up and down the Thames.
03:16Oliver, Leader of the Saks for KMTV in Greenhithe.