A2/M2 Widening

Rochester, UK

Project outline

Currently one of the largest road schemes under construction in the UK, it involves widening a 17km section of the roadway and building a new 1km bridge.

Contract value

£125m

Key features

• Environmentally sensitive location
• New 1km river crossing
• Over 30 replacement structures
• Major junction reconstructive work
• Parliamentary Bill procedures

Skills utilised

• Civil and Structural Engineering
• Environmental Impact Assessment
• Geotechnical
• Highway Planning and Engineering
• Structures and Bridges
• Sustainable Development
• Traffic Planning

Project detail

The M2 motorway forms part of the United Kingdom's strategic route linking London with the Medway Towns, North Kent and the Port of Dover. Carriageway widening, generally from dual two-lanes to dual four lanes, has recently been completed, together with a new 1km crossing of the River Medway, modification and strengthening work to the existing Medway Bridge and major improvements at Junctions 2 and 3.

The project's objective was to increase capacity, relieve congestion and improve accessibility to the Channel Ports and Tunnel. However, during the initial design phase, the Government also decided to route the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) parallel to the motorway and both schemes were enabled under a hybrid Parliamentary Bill which required that they should be built concurrently in order to minimise the duration of disruption to road users and inconvenience to the local communities.

We were appointed to investigate the feasibility of widening 17km of the A2/M2 route between the A2 Cobham Junction and M2 motorway Junction 4, hold Public Exhibitions, prepare an Illustrative Design and Environmental Statement, and support the Highways Agency during consideration of the Scheme by Select Committees from both Houses of Parliament, because this project obtained its Powers under the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Act (1996).

More recently, we prepared Design & Build tender documents, assisted the Highways Agency with selection of tenderers, assessed both Quality and Financial Bids and are now operating the Review and Certification Procedure, together with monitoring quality and progress on Site, as required under the Highways Agency's brief for the Employer's Agent.

Sustainable engineering solutions have been a keynote of this project, with the appointment of specialist environmental sub-consultants, from the outset. This achieved mitigation through good design as well as being accompanied by a carefully planned series of advance works contracts for ecological mitigation, one of which became an award-winning contract for translocation of woodland soils. Earthworks materials from the adjacent CTRL contract were incorporated into the works and tertiary vegetative drainage systems were designed in, for the treatment of surface water run off before discharge to soakways close to water abstraction aquifers.

For more information, please contact Derek Johnson