The future of the multi-billion pound Lower Thames Crossing has been delayed as a result of the general election.
After Rishi Sunak’s announcement last week, a decision on the planning application, which would see Kent and Essex linked by a tunnel, has been pushed back.
A decision was set to be considered on Thursday, June 20, by the secretary of state for transport, but this has been affected by election campaigns for the July 4 vote.
National Highways has now confirmed the date has been pushed back to October 4.
The delay is to allow the new government enough time to properly consider the application and the Department of Transport would look to make a decision ahead of the new deadline.
If approved, the 14-mile road – which would make it Britain’s longest road tunnel – is expected to cost around £9billion and would connect the M2 and A2 in Gravesend to the M25 in Essex.
National Highways said the crossing would be the “greenest road” in the UK.
The project has been on the map for 15 years without any progress and cost £300 million so far.
Recently, it was revealed the development is the longest planning application on record with a whopping 359,866 pages spread over 2,838 separate documents.
There are so many pages of plans, arguments, and comments that if every page of paper was laid on the ground it would stretch 66 miles – the equivalent of a trip from Gravesend to Cambridge.
More than a decade on from when the project was suggested, no physical work has been completed. In comparison, the cost is more than Norway spent on completing a 15.2-mile road tunnel in 2000.
