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One of the things they are considering is closing the slip road and left turn filter lane here, which would make Bluewater to the A2 eastbound very circuitous.
Why would it? They plan a new slip road for that on the new junction. I don’t see how that’s more circuitous really.
Well, you'd have to take a longer route over the bridge to the main A2 junction. The current four lanes of traffic south of the onslip from Bluewater will be crammed into only two lanes over the bridge. This traffic then all piles into a signalized roundabout; you need the second exit to reach the A2 eastbound.
It all seems a lot of hassle compared to simply freeflowing onto the A296 and A2 onslip.
Yes, it seems very bizarre to close that slip. Why would they reduce the B255 from 4 lanes to two? It's already a nightmare getting out of Bluewater at busy times, removing this will only make it worse.
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If you are coming off the A 2 westbound towards Bluewater, you have to right on the 1st roundabout, then go over a single carriageway bridge over the A 2, then cross the 2nd roundabout. The same is correct if you want to join the A2 Westbound from Bluewater.
If you coming to Bluewater from the A2 Eastbound, you have the easiest route as you have a filter lane.
Now the worst part is entering the A2 Eastbound. You have to go down A296 Watling Street which is 2 way because the entry of the major building works in the quarry beneath it. There is also a Timber yard and cafe there which prevents it being a normal slip road.
The plans are to build an additional bridge over the A2 (which should have done years ago) and build a new Eastbound Sliproad onto the A 2 avoiding Watling Street.
This project is now 9 months away from being completed and much work has taken place away from the A2 to create the widened slip roads and approaches to the roundabouts which traffic is now largely running on, however today the project was dealt a setback when the contractor that was creating the bridge beams for the new Bean bridge, went into administration. https://www.kentonline.co.uk/dartford/n ... on-251583/ this has meant the planned closure for their installation scheduled for next weekend has inevitably been called off. As a regular user of the A2, I hope this doesn't put the project back too much. The works have largely gone to plan so far, however there have been issues with the traffic management, with oversized vehicles ignoring the width limit over bean bridge, also cars entering the works area at the westbound Bean exit.
This weekend sees the A2 closed at Bean junction so that the bridge beams and falsework can be installed, they are also installing new gantries and signs and other works that can be undertaken without live traffic. Traffic following the diversion routes has largely been OK (I drove from Medway to North Weald without any major traffic holdups), however some local issues arising from traffic trying to bypass the closure via Swanscombe and the narrow rural routes, with local media reporting gridlock and people being "stuck in queues for hours". Will be interesting to see what's been acheived when the road re-opens tomorrow morning.
The project is now 6 months away from completion, The new kerb lines have largely been completed at the bean and Ebbsfleet junction with just the roundabouts and Bean Bridge approaches to complete. Various parts of the scheme are being progressed under night closures such as surfacing and street furniture, which are programmed to run until just before Christmas. Some areas are more advanced than others. Coastbound Ebbsfleet entry has had its final surfacing layer applied along with permanent line markings and streetlight poles erected. I imagine the aim is to get the bulk of the work done before Christmas with just finishing off works next year.
The new bridge at Bean junction opened to traffic last week (25th November) and much of the Bean junction works are substantially complete aside from the final surfacing layer in places and the roundabout has been marked out with temporary markings so christmas shopping traffic has 2 clear lanes around the junction as was in place before the works commenced. ebbsfleet junction is largely complete. Some surfacing is going down on the A2 and the new slip road, which is where the bulk of the overnight works are taking place along with the modifications to the overhead gantries.
Ben302 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 02, 2021 20:57
The new bridge at Bean junction opened to traffic last week (25th November) and much of the Bean junction works are substantially complete aside from the final surfacing layer in places and the roundabout has been marked out with temporary markings so christmas shopping traffic has 2 clear lanes around the junction as was in place before the works commenced. ebbsfleet junction is largely complete. Some surfacing is going down on the A2 and the new slip road, which is where the bulk of the overnight works are taking place along with the modifications to the overhead gantries.
We travelled along this bridge that day, on our way to Bluewater, and I didn’t realise until seeing it on a local news site the next day that this was the first day the new bridge was open. I had commented to my partner it did look quite a bit different since our last trip to Bluewater in 2019, since I knew of the road scheme in the area.
The A2 coastbound has now had 3 full width lanes reinstated with the 4th lane coned off at the point where the new coastbound slip road will joins as a lane gain and is coned off up the hill to just before the point where the existing coastbound slip joins. Not much more to do after christmas. Looks like the remaining works will be resurfacing and landscaping and street furniture as the main construction works are largely complete.
This week will see some significant changes taking place at the Bean interchange, with the new coastbound entry slip road opening and as a lane gain it will mean 4 lanes (minus a hard shoulder) up the hill towards the Swanscombe cutting, where the existing slip joins. At the same time the A296 is being made temporarily one way heading away from Bean North roundabout which is being partially closed on it's north side whilst it is converted into a signalised crossroads. Traffic leaving Bluewater and heading for either the A2 or Westbound on the a296 will therefore have to squeeze into 2 lanes to cross over the A296 bridge before the roundabout. Last week on the A2 they did some work on the left turn link at the top of the coastbound exit at Bean and they temprarily closed it and one lane of the exit and placed two way lights at the top of the slip to control the flow of the traffic heading from Bean and the Londonbound exit so traffic leaving coastbound had a chance to enter the roundabout, the resulting queues on the A2 went back to Gravesend and the M25 respectively. Rest of tyhe project looks like it will be largely done in a few weeks time with ebbsfleet junction almost complete except for some surfacing and lining to be done at the West roundabout and the A2260 link northbound. Bean south roundabout almost done apart from surfacing and Island construction on the south side of it.
Ebbsfleet Junction is almost done aside from a few sections of lining and landscaping and the signals are still bagged over, however Bean has still some surfacing, lighting and landscaping works to be done, the main focus of work is to construct the footway/cycleway on the A296 on the line of the old eastbound slip, which will remain in use for local traffic once the scheme is finished, to facilitate this, a significant change is being made to the Southbound B255 bluewater Parkway, where at the point where the freeflow link from Bluewater joins the main carriageway of the B255. Before this week, it became a D4 separated by a dashed line into 2 lane sections owing to the proximity of the exit slip for the A296, this section was notorious for weaving, so they've decided to erect a barrier to segregate the road so that traffic heading on the main B255 can't exit for the A296 and traffic leaving bluewater can't join the mainline of the B255. This should evenly distribute traffic between the old and the new eastbound slips for the A2. One negative is that it means traffic, especially emergency vehicles heading for the nearby Darenth valley Hospital will have to double back through a 270 degree route to rejoin the A296 roundabout from the opposite side.
Went through this tonight and all seems largely complete with the traffic signals at Bean now operational, The signals at Ebbsfleet are still bagged over although work is largely complete there, the official completion date has slipped as the signs are taped over to read complete ........ 2022. Most work is taking place during night closures which include street lighting and final remedial works.