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A Government minister struggled to answer questions about a new crossing for the River Thames after a further £590 million of public money was committed to it. The Lower Thames Crossing will link Essex and Kent and received planning consent earlier this year.
But economic secretary Emma Reynolds was unable to give details of the precise location of the crossing, or the total cost of the project. She also mistakenly referred to the existing crossing being the “Dartmouth tunnel”, apparently confusing the Devon town with Dartford around 238 miles away, the location of the crossings for traffic across the Thames.
The minister was on LBC Radio as part of a series of morning broadcast interviews. She told LBC Radio: “I meant Dartford, excuse me, I had a very early morning.”
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The crossing will involve two tunnels under the Thames to the east of Tilbury in Essex and Gravesend in Kent. Pressed on the cost, she said “it’s going to cost quite a lot of money”, suggesting it would be “several billion pounds”. Asked about the proposed new crossing’s location, she said: “You’ll forgive me, I can’t recall the landing zone.”
LBC Radio presenter Nick Ferrari told Ms Reynolds: “Is there much point continuing this conversation because you don’t know where a bridge starts, where it ends, and you don’t know how much it costs?”
National Highways has estimated the cost will be between £9.2 billion and £10.2 billion, depending on the funding model chosen. It would connect the A2 and M2 in Kent to the A13 and M25 in Essex via a 2.6-mile tunnel under the Thames, which would be the UK’s longest road tunnel.
The funding for the Lower Thames Crossing will be part of the Government’s 10-year infrastructure plan. A new structures fund will also invest in repairing bridges, flyovers, tunnels, and other transport infrastructure, such as roads.
The Lower Thames Crossing is aimed at reducing congestion at Dartford. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has said that the project is “essential for improving the resilience of a key freight route and is critical to our long-term trade with Europe”.
“It will speed up the movement of goods from south-east England to the Midlands and the north, crucial to thousands of jobs and businesses,” she added. Rachel Reeves has said ministers are “going all in by going up against the painful disruption of closed bridges, crossings and flyovers”.
The Chancellor added: “This is a turning point for our national infrastructure, and we’re backing it with funding to support thousands of jobs and connect communities, delivering on our plan for change.”
It comes ahead of the Government’s infrastructure strategy, expected this week, while public procurement rules are set to be overhauled so that public bodies will have to give more weight to firms which can prove they will boost British jobs when they are bidding for contracts. The Chancellor outlined a range of infrastructure investments as part of last week’s spending review.
