Transport

Highways England are pleased to announce that the London facing slip roads will be available for traffic on 20 December 2019. The availability of these slip roads will make junction 10a fully operational.

The construction of the London facing slip roads of junction 10a, involved building two new bridges to allow the new slip roads to span over the Aylesford stream. It also required the permanent closure of the existing Junction 10 coast facing slips to enable the new slips to safety join onto the M20.

The fully operational new junction 10a will:

• Relieve congestion around the existing junction 10 and therefore will reduce queues forming on the slip road which often extend back onto the M20.
• Improve safety; and
• Will improve journeys and open the door for further inward economicinvestment for communities in the area which is also part of an international route widely used by freight and holiday traffic.

Earlier this year work was fast-tracked so that key sections of this new junction would be available for traffic by 31 October. As a result, the east facing slip roads at the new junction, as well as the new A2070 link road, were open at the end of October.

Next year work will involve landscaping and completion of the non-motorised user route, these works may require some localised traffic management to safely access the works.

Highways England hope this information is helpful; we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your patience and we apologise for any inconvenience these works may have caused. However, if you have any questions please contact us by visiting our scheme webpage at www.highwaysengland.co.uk/M20J10a

You may have heard recently that there have been some changes to our plan for opening the new junction 10a we are building on the M20 near Ashford, and I wanted to write to you to tell you what our plans are and what they mean for you.

The main thing that has changed is that we are fast-tracking work to have the new east facingslip roads at the new junction and the new A2070 link road open in time for 31 October. This will mean that drivers will be able to use the new coastbound entry and London-bound exit slip roads, and the new A2070 link road from this Thursday 31 October 2019.

Drivers will be able to access the M20 travelling eastbound using the new A2070 link road and M20 J10a. Drivers travelling westbound will also be able to exit the M20 at the new junction 10a and travel towards Ashford using the A2070 link road. Having these new links available for traffic is significant good news that will benefit thousands of drivers every day and improve access to and from Ashford. We accelerated this work to help
lorries move smoothly to and from Ashford Truck stop when the UK was expecting to leave the European Union on 31 October.

Opening these new links will also allow us to move on to the next stage of finishing the improvements. From early November the coast-bound slip road onto the M20 at junction 10 and the London-bound exit slip road will be permanently closed, allowing us to complete construction on the new west facing slip roads at junction 10a.

The A20 will remain on its current temporary alignment for the time being and will be connected to the new junction 10a in phases. The A20 will be connected to the east side of junction 10a on Monday night 4 November and will be open in both directions. Drivers will be able to exit at the new junction 10a and travel towards Sellindge, and will also be able to travel from Sellindge and access junction 10a. The A20 will be connected to the west side of junction 10a, via a oneway system. During this period, there will be no access to the A20 from junction 10a traveling towards junction 10. Drivers seeking to travel to junction 10 from junction 10a, will be directed to use the A2070 link road instead. This temporary road layout is shown in the diagram above.

The final changes should be complete – and the new junction fully open to traffic – in spring 2020.

I hope you agree that this is an exciting time for Ashford, as we take the final steps to open this major road improvement to traffic. We hope this information is helpful and we apologise in advance for any inconvenience this work may cause.

If you have any questions please contact us by visiting our scheme webpage at www.highwaysengland.co.uk/M20J10a.

M20 junction 10a Project Manager