Skip to main content

Upgrades planned for key UK link

Work is now to go ahead on upgrading a key stretch of the A21 road in the UK. Contractor Balfour Beatty will handle the work to widen a stretch of the A21 between Tonbridge and Pembury and also improve the road, with it becoming a dual carriageway. The €87.55 million (£69.7 million) scheme forms part of a plan by the UK Government for a series of road improvements of €30.15 billion (£24 billion) by 2021. Advance work is expected to start in the third quarter of this year with the main construction activity
July 14, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Work is now to go ahead on upgrading a key stretch of the A21 road in the UK. Contractor 1146 Balfour Beatty will handle the work to widen a stretch of the A21 between Tonbridge and Pembury and also improve the road, with it becoming a dual carriageway. The €87.55 million (£69.7 million) scheme forms part of a plan by the UK Government for a series of road improvements of €30.15 billion (£24 billion) by 2021. Advance work is expected to start in the third quarter of this year with the main construction activity commencing in the second quarter of 2015. A 4km section of the A21 between Tonbridge and Pembury in Kent will be upgraded from single to dual carriageway, adding a lane in each direction, upgrading junctions and improving the road layout. The road scheme will make journeys on the A21 safer and help reduce congestion as the section is used by over 35,000 drivers/day. The A21 upgrade is one of six major road schemes that the 2309 Highways Agency is developing for delivery after 2015 and is in addition to the 24 major road projects on England's motorways and major A roads being delivered between 2010 and 2015. Evidence given at the public enquiry last year showed that journey times will be improved along this section by up to 65% in 2017 while the number of collisions reduced by 60%.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Astaldi begins drilling tunnels on Poland’s S7 dual carriageway
    March 14, 2017
    Italian contractor Astaldi has begun drilling two parallel tunnels as part of its S7 dual carriageway project in Poland. Each tunnel, between Naprawa and Skomielna Biala and under the Lubon Maly massif, will each be just over 2km long. Astaldi, based in Rome, won the three-year S7 dual carriageway project worth around €225 million in 2016 Work includes 38 bridges and viaducts and three motorway services. There will also be 25km of access roads and two junctions. The north-south S7, when complete
  • Tunnel project of Chilean capital Santiago
    April 8, 2015
    Tunnel construction in Chilean capital Santiago will help cut chronic congestion – Mauro Nogarin & Mike Woof write. Chile’s capital Santiago is a thriving city having benefited from the country’s economy growing strongly in recent years. The massive copper mining sector has helped boost the country’s GDP significantly in the past few decades, also aided by the growing international reputation of Chile’s large wine industry. The steady economic growth has resulted in an equally steady growth in average incom
  • Mott MacDonald to upgrade major west Spain highway
    July 17, 2013
    Mott MacDonald (MM) has been appointed by Sociedad Concesionaria Autovía de la Plata as lender’s technical advisor for a major highway upgrade in western Spain. The project involves the design, construction, maintenance, operation and finance of a 49km two-lane dual carriageway between Benavente and Zamora. The new road, which will bypass the existing single carriageway through local villages, will form the last section of the 809km A-66 Autovía de la Plata highway, connecting Gijon in the north to Seville
  • Recycled organic compost stabilises embankments
    February 21, 2012
    Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) is a UK government-funded body designed to encourage greater resource efficiency. This body completed a trial with contractor Balfour Beatty and the Highways Agency to test the innovative use of recycled organic compost along roadside embankments.