A21 - M25 - M26
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Ordnance Survey map Alternative aerial view
Where is it?
Chevening Interchange, junction 5 of the M25. The point where London's orbital meets the A21, a major route to the south coast, and the M26, a shortcut between the M25 in the south and the M20 towards the Channel Ports.
What's wrong with it?
It appears to have been designed by Stevie Wonder Traffic Engineering. The priority route is M25 to M26 - while a fair amount of traffic does go that way, surely the M25 should have priority over all else, what with it being a ring road to 6 milion people and the busiest road in the country.
Traffic from Sevenoaks is also badly served: to head east from there and join the M26/M20 route, traffic must use the narrow and winding single-carriageway A25 parallel to the M26 since there's no access to the motorway network eastbound from the A21 here. Kent County Council continue to lobby for a change to this situation, all to no avail.
Why is it wrong?
The M25 wasn't meant to be the through route here. The interchange is built around a section of the once-upon-a-time A21 Sevenoaks bypass, which used to be the north-south route here, explaining why that is a mainline carriageway. When the M25 was built, it stopped here, the A21 continuing north and the M26 continuing east. When finally the ends of the M25 were joined up, it was too late, and the junction had to be adapted. The M25 is now carried on little two-lane sliproads.
What would be better?
First of all, let's have access between the A21 and M26 - a left turn M26-A21 is easy enough to add; then A21 to M26 could be achieved by either shifting the north-western sliproad out a bit to make way for a loop, or tunnelling a new sliproad underneath the whole thing (this has been done elsewhere before). As for the M25, how about giving it more lanes and more priority at merges and diverges?
Right to reply
Hate this junction? Or do you think it hasn't had a fair trial? Make yourself heard! Post a comment.
These are the most recent comments on this junction. You can see all comments if you prefer.
Catford Cat writes:
It is kinda crappy, but I think the clockwise approach (i.e. going from Dartford towards Clacket Lane) is simply in need of a sign that says "don't panic, stay in the lane you're in until it all sorts itself out" - if you do that, it isn't a problem. If people suddenly panic at the sight of faster traffic to their left and do something stupid, then it can be...
Tim Shaw writes:
I could not agree more. What a complete highways fiasco in having 3 main UK highways in Kent unable to properly connect and move UK and European traffic in 2010. The A20, A227, A228 and A25 Kent villages are all suffering a horrendous traffic nightmare because traffic from Europe and East Kent heading towards Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells, Hastings etc (vice versa) cannot go down the M26 to use the A21.
James agrees:
My mother absolutely hates this junction - even though she remembers it being built and we all know the roads round here like the backs of our collective hands. I tend to agree with her. The worst bit is the "exit" slip road of the clockwise M25 onto the M26-now-turned-M25. You come out and there's simply nowhere to go.
I watch the traffic cameras on trafficengland.com occasionally (boredom) and I've seen more than one overturned lorry taking the road too fast there! It's evidently a nasty place to be, whoever you are...
Ba Storey would like south to east sliproads:
I agree with everything the other commentors have said. What they failed to mention is the impact on the surrounding villages that this lop-sised junction has. Lorries (and anything else) wanting to go to say Sevenoaks town from the coast need to leave the M20 at Wrotham, and travel along the A25 through Borough Green, Seal, Bat and Ball etc. The traffic jams at peak times are horrendous. I have the misfortune to work just outside Sevenoaks, at Sundridge. I travel from West Malling, a journey of 14 miles which usually takes an hour. This is quite ridiculous when I could use M26 all the way. There must be many people like me who waste hours and gallons of petrol in this way, not to mention the impact on the villages. Something must be done.
Fabian unravels the mysteries of the M25:
Apart from it being a particularly disastrous junction, what I like about it is that if you get on the A21 at Tonbridge and drive north, and never turn off, after going round the M25, back to this junction for a second time, you eventually end up in Dover.
