Stockbury Roundabout

The Stockbury Roundabout (also known as The Ridgeway) forms Junction 5 of the M2. The junction is well known for the pair of folded slip roads which connect the M2 and A249 together at a roundabout, which are very tight and bendy when compared to modern standards. This is because of how the junction was built in the middle of a valley, making any connection to the A249 here difficult to build. This is also the reason why the M2 crosses the junction along a highly-elevated viaduct.

The junction was one of the first to open on the M2, and the connecting roundabout has modified several times since, including a new A249 to Sheerness in the 1990s, and grade separation of A249 traffic in the 2020s.

History

The junction was first opened to traffic in 1963 between J2 and J5, but was fully opened to traffic between J5 and J7 when the M2 was completed in 1965.

Eventually, the A249 to the south was upgraded to be a dual carriageway, but significant modifications to the junction occurred during the 1990s when a new dual carriageway bypassing the old Maidstone Road to the north of the junction was built. This led to the roundabout being enlarged and widened to 3 lanes, becoming more of an oval shape in the process. The scheme also saw the implementation of traffic lights to most sides of the junction.

Improvement scheme

2016 consultation

In recent years, there have been efforts to improve the junction. This started in 2016, where it was announced that junction improvements with a budget of £50-£100m would be looked into in order to increase the capacity of the junction to support local growth projects and relieve the chronic congestion which the A249 faces at the junction.

2017 consultation

A consultation then took place in September and October 2017, which presented Option 12, a hamburger-type junction as giving the highest cost/benefit ratio. However, this option was universally unpopular amongst locals, which led to another consultation taking place in May 2018, where National Highways announced the new preferred option, which was Option 4H1.

Current scheme details

The option which National Highways went through with incorporates a flyover for the A249, which goes over a new roundabout. Access to the M2 in the option is provided through the existing slip roads at the new roundabout. A local connection via Oad Street is also included in the option, as Maidstone Road would be closed and replaced by an infiltration basin. In summary, it would become a modified triple-stacked roundabout à la the Chieveley Interchange.

Draft orders were published in June 2019, with construction starting in 2021. As part of the works, the eastbound part of the M2 access was closed in December 2022 and January 2023.

Routes

Route	To	Notes
M2	London
M2	Canterbury, Ramsgate, Dover
A249	Sittingbourne, Sheerness
A249	Maidstone, Channel Tunnel (M20), The West (M20, M25)
	Danaway, Chestnut Street	Maidstone Road
A2(M)	London	Provisional number for the M2
A2(M)	Dover, Ramsgate, Canterbury	Provisional number for the M2

Strip Maps

• 

  The current layout of the interchange.

• 

  The Ridgeway as it was in 1965.

Links

National Highways

• M2 junction 5 improvements
• Preferred Route Announcement Brochure (archive.org)(30.05.2018)

legislation.gov.uk

• The A249 Trunk Road (Stockbury Roundabout Improvements) Order 2021 - This Order designates the section of proposed new road to connect the amended A249 Trunk Road to the amended A249 County Road, as described in the Schedule, as a trunk road from the date this Order comes into force.