Flyover project boss reveals opening date aim

KentOnline / KMTV

National Highways M2 Junction 5 project manager, Daniel Rollinson, talks about how the £92 million Stockbury Flyover is progressing

Transcript

00:00 Anybody who's driven through the scheme, particularly in the last 9-12 months, will have seen a lot of change.

00:05 Specifically in the centre of the flyover itself.

00:08 So the flyover is now, for all intents and purposes, complete.

00:12 So the retaining walls are done and we're just doing the kerbing now.

00:16 And then we've got to actually build the road layers before it's available for traffic to use.

00:21 We're aiming to open the flyover itself to traffic early July to mid July.

00:27 Obviously we'll always try and better that where we can.

00:30 But I would obviously caveat by saying we've still got a lot of work to do.

00:33 Some key works, particularly on the north side of the roundabout.

00:36 People will see that that's not as complete as the southern side.

00:40 And we've still got a lot of complicated work to do on that end.

00:43 But we're confident that by mid-summer we should be in a position to allow people to use the flyover.

00:48 We will still have bits of work to do.

00:51 Specifically things like landscaping and little bits here and there to tie up.

00:56 But in terms of major closures, we should be through it there.

00:59 We may still need some lanes or maybe some overnight closures.

01:02 But in terms of our big closures by mid-summer, they should be finished.

01:08 There's a lot of work that's hard to see as you're driving through.

01:11 And we appreciate that people can't always really get perspective of the work that's happening.

01:16 But there is a lot of work that's off the carriageway.

01:19 A lot of drainage, a lot of new drainage.

01:21 So this is all really deep underground drainage as well.

01:24 Some of it that we always knew about.

01:26 Some of it that has come about because of the conditions that we found when we've been out here.

01:31 So we've really had to adapt and change some of our phase and some of our methodology around building a job.

01:37 To allow us to do what we need to do.

01:40 Anybody who uses this junction on a daily basis, whether they live around here or whether they commute through the junction.

01:46 Are well aware of the queuing issues.

01:48 Particularly people that are traveling from the Isle of Sheppey and Citybourne towards Maidstone or vice versa.

01:53 So sort of those south to north and north to south directions.

01:57 The queuing, specifically during peak times can be really bad.

02:00 So obviously by building a flyover, we're removing all of that traffic that's doing those two dominant movements off of the roundabout.

02:08 And allowing them to just flow straight through.

02:10 Which means that then local traffic or traffic that are using maybe some of the slip roads.

02:15 It will allow them to access a roundabout which will be free flowing.

02:19 No traffic lights. It's larger.

02:21 It will allow it to flow much smoother and it just reduces or eliminates those delays.

02:27 And alongside the flyover, we've also then built the new dedicated slip road.

02:32 So people will see that if you're traveling from Citybourne and you want to go to London.

02:36 Our dedicated slip road to the M2 is now open.

02:39 Same on the other side.

02:40 So if you're traveling on Mason and you want to go to the coast.

02:43 Again, that dedicated slip road is open.

02:45 And again, all it means is it's taking all those traffic off the roundabout that would normally have to go to traffic lights and stop.

02:51 It removes all of that.

02:52 Which makes everything free flowing.

02:54 People that have smoother journeys, quicker journeys.

02:57 But also more importantly, safer journeys as well.

02:59 You know, a lot of accidents can happen in slow moving traffic.

03:02 A lot of shunts and bumps and things like that.

03:04 So yeah, by doing all that, it improves the safety and it improves everybody's traveling experience.

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