Dartford crossing celebrating 60 years of connecting counties

Once designed for 4 million cars, the crossing between Kent and Essex sees 50 million vehicles a year.

Transcript

00:00 It's 1963 and the first tunnel of its kind in Kent, connecting the county to the country,

00:08 has opened. One lane in each direction, used by 4 million cars. 60 years later and the

00:17 crossing carries 50 million a year.

00:20 The tunnel first came about in the 1920s and the pilot tunnel actually got built in the

00:28 1930s but it was mothballed because of the Second World War. So once the Second World

00:33 War was over, they were able to recommence in the 50s.

00:38 More cars on the road, more people commuting from counties, means more traffic, which on

00:44 a Friday evening in particular, the tunnel is known for.

00:48 The Dartford residents do have a love-hate relationship with the crossing. I know the

00:53 construction of the tunnel brought a lot of prosperity to Dartford and particularly my

00:58 own family who worked on the project were able to reap the benefits for working on such

01:03 a legacy.

01:04 But the team are hoping to ease these pressures.

01:09 It's a very busy crossing, which is why we've got so many people dedicated to keeping it

01:13 running 24 hours a day. So we carry out all the work at night, we've got crews here to

01:19 respond to any incidents really quickly if they happen to make sure we're getting as

01:23 much traffic through the crossing as we can. Then longer term, in the planning at the moment,

01:28 there's a further crossing which would nearly double the capacity.

01:32 The celebrations today were about looking forward to the future and improving infrastructure,

01:38 while remembering what drove this project.

01:42 The cars are here really to demonstrate two things. First of all, the passage of time

01:45 that these crossings have been here. And secondly, when you look at the size of them, you look

01:49 at this one here, the size is much, much smaller. Modern cars today, even fairly standard ones,

01:55 are much, much larger. So they're taking up more capacity. They take longer to get across

01:59 the crossing. It might sound silly, but it's a real consideration for these guys.

02:04 While some cars are doubling in size, the team are hoping to double Dartford's capacity

02:09 to keep counties connected and traffic moving.

02:13 Abbey Hook for KMTV.

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