Ministers give green light to £10bn Lower Thames Crossing

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Ministers are known as Lower Thames Crossing after a few years of delay for the $ 10 billion road tunnel between Kent and Essex, the private sector expects most of the project to finance.

Transport secretary Heidi Alexander According to UK government officials, Tuesday will approve a development consent order for the long -awaited project.

The 14 mile road and the tunnel will cross the first new Thames River before London in 60 years. The news came forward in the spring statement of Rachel Reeves on Wednesday.

An official said that the project would be a “main strategic route” for drivers, freight and logistics, improve connection between South England and Midlands and unlock regional economic growth.

“It shows the promise of this government to supply the important infrastructure of the country,” they said.

This project has become a symbol of the sclerotic planning system in Britain, spending more than $ 1.2 billion on the project despite the fact that construction has not started.

Money has been spent on planning, advice, traffic modeling, environmental evaluation, legal and consultative fees and purchase of land.

The plan document for the project moves to 359,070 pages, with William Shakespeare’s complete work about 300 times more.

The cost of the tunnel project has already risen from $ 5.3 billion to $ 5.3 billion and $ 6.8 billion with the current forecast for nearly $ 10 billion in 2017.

It is expected that the construction will begin before a planned opening by 2032 in the early 2026 or 2027.

The government has not yet decided which private money should be used in this project with the expected decision by the Treasury later this year.