Park Pale Interchange

The Park Pale Interchange, also known as Three Crutches Interchange, is junction 1 of the M2. It was initially built as a simple fork along with the rest of the M2 in 1963, and in 1968 it became infamous when the A2 west of this junction was upgraded to D3M while the M2 was left as D2M. In 1999, the A289 was built to act as a northern by-pass of the core Medway Towns. In order to accommodate this, the junction had a trumpet built near to the original fork junction. These works moved the Londonbound A2 on a new alignment while the coastbound A2 slip was made into two lanes. As soon as those works were finished in 2004, the M2 itself was finally widened to D3M/D4M to the Gillingham interchange. This meant the original overbridge from the old fork was replaced with a D4M version of the bridge and thus the modern junction was complete.

Early design for the A289 bypass scheme

Initial plans for the junction with the A289 were made in 1986 which would have seen the junction become a dumbbell. This would have concentrated all turning movements at the northern of the two roundabouts. By 1992 the design had changed to the far superior layout that was built in 1999.

Routes

Route	To	Notes
M2	Canterbury, Channel Tunnel, Dover, W. Malling (A228)
A2	(M25), London, Dartford Crossing
A2	Rochester, Strood
A289	Gillingham, Grain (A228)
A2(M)	Dover, Canterbury	Provisional number for M2
LTC	The NORTH, Stansted Airport (M25, M11), Tilbury (A13)	earlier route for Lower Thames Crossing option C
TGAAR	Thames Gateway Airport, Thamesport	Access Road to proposed Thames Gateway Airport

Strip Maps

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  The current layout of the interchange.

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  Park Pale Interchange as it was in 1963

Links

legislation.gov.uk

• The M2 Motorway (West of Rochester Section) Scheme 1996 - This instrument provides for the westward extension of the M2 at Park Pale Interchange as part of the redesign of junction to incorporate the new relief road.

• The Kent County Council (Wainscott Northern Bypass) Motorway Scheme 1992 Confirmation Instrument 1996 - This instrument provides for the connecting sliproads from the M2 to the Wainscott Northern Bypass road