Preparatory work is starting in Essex and Kent for construction of the important Lower Thames Crossing project. Before the major construction and tunnelling begins in 2028, work will be carried out to protect the area’s utility supplies, heritage, and wildlife, with around 1000ha of new habitat created.
Shaun Pidcock, Delivery Director for the Lower Thames Crossing, said: “There’s now real progress to be seen, as we start getting the area ready for the new road and tunnel to be built. Our low-carbon approach to construction means the Lower Thames Crossing will be Britain’s greenest road and create local jobs and new skills.”
Later this spring, work will start to turn an area of scrubland es near Coalhouse Point in East Tilbury into a wetland for migratory and wading birds. Diggers will create wetland ‘scrapes’, ponds, and ditches that will fill with tidal water and give a home to water voles and newts. Work on the new habitats will be completed next year, before being left to mature.
In Kent to the east of the Thong village, new habitats with ponds, trees and hedgerows are being created. Later this spring archaeologists will start work in the area around the southern tunnel entrance, to the east of Gravesend.
Later this year the project will also start diverting gas, water, electricity and telecoms lines along the route to safeguard supplies that feed London and the south-east.
The project’s first work compounds are being set up near East Tilbury in Thurrock, and at Thong near Gravesend. They will contain facilities for workers and storage for machinery, equipment and materials. Haul roads are being built between the compounds and nearby worksites.
