M2 junction 5 improvements

[MotorwayGuy]

Once the roundabout is grade-seperated, I can see more accidents happening at the Church Hill junction, especially if people will attempt to make illegal U-turns there.

[Darren]

Scheme page updated today. M2 London bound entry is planned to be reopened ahead of schedule on Thursday (just needs top layer of surfacing and markings) signs and other works all done. However on the page its grim news for regular users of the Stockbury roundabout as the northern section along with the tie ins from the coast bound m2 and A249 heading to the roundabout itself, will be closed from the 4th of October until the end of November so they can construct the northern part of the flyover as it's very close to the existing live lanes. Also to assist with traffic management they're closing the Northbound exit at the A2 Key street junction so diverted traffic will have to use Bobbing junction further north. This sounds a good call given that the A2/Key Street junction is partially signalised and is always busy as a result, whereas bobbing has none and can easily cope with increased traffic volumes.

It's not a great call really.

Working as I do along the A2 in Sittingbourne, heading home to the far end of Sheppey, a 12 mile trip, normally takes 20 minutes.

On Friday? 50 minutes.
On Monday? 35 minutes.
Today? 45 minutes.

That's over an hour added in just 3 days... and there are 15 months of this yet to come!

The reason is the poxy Grovehurst lane closure - they've put it just *after* the Bobbing onslip, meaning you crawl up the slip road, joining two near-stationary lanes of traffic, then have to merge again for the one-lane section through Grovehurst.

Bear in mind the northbound slips for Grovehurst are closed, meaning to get to Iwade you either have to go through Sittingbourne or - you guessed it - use the Bobbing roundabout.

Then today there are gas works (for 2 weeks) along the A2 just up from Key Street... result, utter gridlock in Sittingbourne as a whole during rush hour. The sort of thing where you're at a red light, traffic clogs up in the junction, the lights turn green but you can't move, they go red, traffic moves and clogs up again. Infuriating.

Closing the Key Street slip next week and making everyone use Bobbing is just going to make things even worse... it effectively means instead of three junctions for northbound traffic, they're forcing everyone to use just one junction - which feeds straight into a lane closure, so is always gummed up already during rush hour.

The sensible things to do are:

1) Move the Grovehurst lane closure back a few hundred yards, so the merge happens before the Bobbing onslip. Traffic using that sliproad then merges with a slow-moving single lane, rather than non-moving two lanes.
2) Cancel the gas works (which aren't urgent - they're for a new estate being built over the next few years)
and possibly 3) Postpone the Stockbury / Key Street closure until early next year, by which time the Grovehurst northbound slips are open.

[Ben302]

The sensible things to do are:

1) Move the Grovehurst lane closure back a few hundred yards, so the merge happens before the Bobbing onslip. Traffic using that sliproad then merges with a slow-moving single lane, rather than non-moving two lanes.
2) Cancel the gas works (which aren't urgent - they're for a new estate being built over the next few years)
and possibly 3) Postpone the Stockbury / Key Street closure until early next year, by which time the Grovehurst northbound slips are open.

Agreed about moving the lane closure back, but this is a KCC not a NH project and I imagine they don't communicate I dread to think what the queues back on to the A249 would be if they didn't close the Key Street exit. Probably as long as the ones going the other way towards Stockbury Roundabout

[Ben302]

the dedicated slip road from the A249 south to the Londonbound M2 opened this morning 5 days ahead of schedule and it's effects have been immediate with little in the way of queuing to use it as the signage instructs those not using it to get in the right hand lane well in advance with only a few last minute cutter-inners causing minor queuing. the curve is much less tight than the other slip from the M2 to the A249 North. as yet the rest of the slip from stockbury roundabout is yet to be finished so for now traffic has to detour via the A249 and turn round at Bobbing.

[AnOrdinarySABREUser]

Should be updated on OSM now!

[AndyB]

Should be updated on OSM now!

Not yet - still showing under construction (yes, SABRE uses OSM, and yes I did check the OSM site itself)

[AnOrdinarySABREUser]

Should be updated on OSM now!

Not yet - still showing under construction (yes, SABRE uses OSM, and yes I did check the OSM site itself)

Sometimes it takes a while for the renderer to update the tiles, so that's why it may appear as under construction for a little while. You can check the history tab on the website itself to confirm.

[Ben302]

The scheme page has been updated today detailing the next significant stage of the project, mainly the installation of the beams for the Northern part of the flyover and moving the M2 Londonbound exit slip onto a temporary alignment while they construct the approach to the new larger Stockbury roundabout. Elsewhere construction is progressing nicely given the favourable weather conditions. the Northern half of the roundabout is still closed (in fact it's been completely removed) and construction has commenced on the northern half of the enlarged roundabout between the abutments with the same happening on the east and south sides with those sides more advanced. The Northern approach is also progressing with retaining walls starting to be built and foundation layers for the main carriageway starting to be built.

Slightly further north they reopened the Key Street exit once the A2 was clear of roadworks.

[Darren]

The Stockbury roundabout will be closed for the whole weekend in two weeks' time, as they'll be moving traffic onto the new, larger roundabout. That will then mean work can start in earnest on the bit in the middle of the flyover, and I know the plan is to get the flyover itself open several months before the scheme as a whole finishes (which is in just over a year's time).

I've attached three photos from the A249 Facebook group (yes, there is one!) showing the work as of the 31st October. Fun bit of trivia: the new bits of road, even the temporary ones, have "SHEER" on them rather than "SHEP" (as the old roundabout had). That's a little bit of history gone, as even though the roundabout wasn't original (it was enlarged in 1997), the "SHEP" abbreviation survived... it was a relic of the old "wonky arrow" era, when the signs at J5 said "Sheppey" rather than "Sheerness".

[Darren]

Wow! For once the council and MP have managed to get the wretched lane closure off Sheppey removed. Thank goodness for that. Hopefully once they restart the works they'll come up with a better TM plan...

(This relates to the congestion I predicted with the A249 going down to one lane in each direction through the Grovehurst junction works, a few miles north of the M2. The councillors didn't even bother replying to my email about it before it came in, then proceeded to ignore it at the Joint Transport Board meeting, instead waffling on about traffic lights at the roundabout when it's finished. Whoops!

The bridge clogs up at around 5:40 in the morning, every weekday, and doesn't get back to normal until the early afternoon. Journeys that should take 15 minutes are taking well over an hour, and it's causing chaos in the Sittingbourne schools as the buses are invariably late every day. It's the same for commuters, of course.)

https://news.kent.gov.uk/articles/shepp ... be-removed

[Ben302]

At long last. I sit in the queues daily. I've tried the old bridge and the "unofficial diversion" through Ridham Dock and they're just as congested. The current arrangement has also seen multiple shunts on the downhill part of the crossing as cars brake to a crawl to allow "queue-jumping" traffic joining from the Swale Halt junction to merge in. To add to the congestion, a key route out of the Eurolink industrial estate in sittingbourne, is currently closed meaning an increase in traffic heading for the Grovehurst and Bobbing junctions. Also they've temproarily reopened the Northbound Entry slip at grovehurst as there are no works taking place there at the moment.

Elsewhere on the Stockbury project, construction is seemingly progressing well despite the recent bad weather, The new roundabout is progressing with kerblines largely down and awaiting the tarmac, which will be laid during the weekend closure in 2 weekends time. Also kerb lines going down at the A249 junction with Church Lane where the road returns to the existing alignment. retaining walls are also going in on the northern approach to the flyover.

[AnOrdinarySABREUser]

The new roundabout has opened, and south of the roundabout, and to my knowledge, A249 SB traffic has been moved onto the new onslip, with the old road being converted into a local road accessing Whipstakes Hill/Oad Street and South Green Lane by Church Hill. OpenStreetMap has been updated with this information.

[Darren]

The new roundabout has opened, and south of the roundabout, and to my knowledge, A249 SB traffic has been moved onto the new onslip, with the old road being converted into a local road accessing Whipstakes Hill/Oad Street and South Green Lane by Church Hill. OpenStreetMap has been updated with this information.

You're a bit eager!

I've attached drone photos from today, posted as usual on the A249 group. The new sliproad isn't finished yet, so traffic remains on the temporary southbound carriageway.

[AnOrdinarySABREUser]

You're a bit eager!

I've attached drone photos from today, posted as usual on the A249 group. The new sliproad isn't finished yet, so traffic remains on the temporary southbound carriageway.
(image)

A bit too eager, unfortunately, like that time when the OS accidentally mapped the A2 by Gravesend as the A2(M).

[Ben302]

Used this today, good to have the roundabout finally fully open again. This weekend, however the A249 heading North away from the roundabout is going to be closed all weekend while they complete the resurfacing of the slip road and the existing A249 at the point where the slip road rejoins the A249 mainline. At the moment there is a temporary tie in which was built while they finished constructing the slip road acceleration lane, which was constructed with a concrete pavement behind temporary barriers. To keep northbound traffic moving, the diversion will take traffic along the Oad street link and up Oad Street itself, which will be temporarily made one way heading away from the A249 and down the hill on the new link road to Maidstone Road towards Bobbing where traffic can rejoin the A249. In theory this should not cause too many issues but...

EDIT: They've postponed the closure now.

[Ben302]

Local press article showing update with drone footage posted today https://www.kentonline.co.uk/sittingbou ... er-300831/.

Since returning from the Christmas break work seems to be ramping up despite the bad weather. The main focus seems to be building the central core of the flyover and finishing off the approach walls. Elsewhere foundations and drainage are being laid on the future southbound carriageway of the A249 and entry slip from the roundabout leading to it. Before Christmas the Church street crossover was reopened having been slightly modified to tie in with the realigned A249 approaching it. Some permanent signage is going in too on the freeflow links and lighting being installed in places. Scheme page updated aswell outlining their plans for the next few weeks too.

[AnOrdinarySABREUser]

On a slightly unrelated note, a 50 mph speed limit and 2.0 m lane width restriction for the overtaking lane has been applied to the M2 between J5 and J6 as part of barrier replacement works, however, I'm not sure about any other details regarding the roadworks.

[Brenley Corner]

On a slightly unrelated note, a 50 mph speed limit and 2.0 m lane width restriction for the overtaking lane has been applied to the M2 between J5 and J6 as part of barrier replacement works, however, I'm not sure about any other details regarding the roadworks.

It is shown on the Maintenance Schemes in the South East section of the National Highways website. Apparently drainage works and barrier repairs: https://nationalhighways.co.uk/our-road ... e-schemes/

[Ben302]

On a slightly unrelated note, a 50 mph speed limit and 2.0 m lane width restriction for the overtaking lane has been applied to the M2 between J5 and J6 as part of barrier replacement works, however, I'm not sure about any other details regarding the roadworks.

It is shown on the Maintenance Schemes in the South East section of the National Highways website. Apparently drainage works and barrier repairs: https://nationalhighways.co.uk/our-road ... e-schemes/

7 months for drainage and barrier repairs though. Despite the length of TM, the works area seems to be roughly two miles in length starting around a mile west of Junction 6 by Brogdale and ending just as you go round the bend after climbing up out of the Doddington valley at Newnham. Maybe it's a concrete barrier they're installing and installing crash cushion terminals on the verge barriers. Most of the central barrier and drainage dates from when the road was rebuilt in the early 90's

[Brenley Corner]

On a slightly unrelated note, a 50 mph speed limit and 2.0 m lane width restriction for the overtaking lane has been applied to the M2 between J5 and J6 as part of barrier replacement works, however, I'm not sure about any other details regarding the roadworks.

It is shown on the Maintenance Schemes in the South East section of the National Highways website. Apparently drainage works and barrier repairs: https://nationalhighways.co.uk/our-road ... e-schemes/

7 months for drainage and barrier repairs though. Despite the length of TM, the works area seems to be roughly two miles in length starting around a mile west of Junction 6 by Brogdale and ending just as you go round the bend after climbing up out of the Doddington valley at Newnham. Maybe it's a concrete barrier they're installing and installing crash cushion terminals on the verge barriers. Most of the central barrier and drainage dates from when the road was rebuilt in the early 90's

The drainage certainly needs attention: I'm a regular user of that stretch of road and the drainage in that first two or three miles from J6 westwards is very poor and there is often water flowing across the carriageway and ponding both in the central reservation and hard shoulder during any moderate to heavy rain. I understood that the barriers would be removed to work on the drainage and then reinstalled (although the type of barrier being reinstated is not mentioned).
So far as I can ascertain they intend to work in the central reservation first, then move the TM at half time so they can work at the edges.