Villagers living near the Bluewater A2 turn-off say they are being kept awake at night by noisy long-running roadworks with no clear end in sight.

Motorists near Bean, Dartford, have been dealing with closures for the past two years as part of the planned £112m upgrade to the Bean and and Ebbsfleet junctions.

Reporter Alex Langridge speaks to residents and attempts to navigate the works

With changes made at short notice and works taking place at all hours, residents say the often delayed route has become a "nightmare", with some comparing it to "hell".

But after almost two years of traffic chaos is this the county's worst route home? In a bid to find out, I attempted to navigate the works.

I must admit my sense of direction is definitely not one of my strong points but I don't think a good one would help when trying to navigate your way around this part of Kent.

What used to be a straightforward route has been transformed into a sea of orange cones and lane closures.

The improvements will see the roundabout north of the A2 at Bean made significantly bigger and controlled by traffic lights, with the south also being made bigger.

A new bridge has been installed and a slip road constructed to divert coastbound traffic. Around Ebbsfleet, the roundabouts have also been enlarged and will be controlled by traffic lights once installed.

It is hoped the changes will increase the road's capacity to ensure the junctions can cope with higher demands, support housing growth in north Kent and make the roads safer.

On my journey last week, I came off the A2 at the Bean exit and it was hard to go wrong as only one lane was open so I continued over the bridge where again only one was open.

It seemed easy enough.

But coming up to the second roundabout was where it got a bit disorientating.

Across towards Bluewater and Stone was again pretty straightforward but if you were looking to go anywhere else you would need to focus a bit more than usual to navigate the new lanes.

One missed exit and you could end up on the new slip road onto the A2 coastbound and heading back the way you came.

I managed to come off at the exit heading towards the A296 and Darent Valley Hospital and was met with a T-junction instead of a roundabout. I wanted the third exit, which in this temporary layout meant a right turn.

In usual circumstances this manoeuvre would have meant you were head-on with oncoming traffic as the road is two-way up to a certain point. But during this set of closures it had been changed to one way heading towards the A2 eastbound.

I must admit the whole drive was not the smoothest.

I am lucky this is not my everyday commute but for those who it is, the work has caused two years of disruption.

Celia Dennison, a resident of Sandy Lane, off the A296, has been held up on and off since early 2020.

"It is taking me over an hour to do a 15 minute drive to the shops and back. It has just been hell..."

The 75-year-old said: "It has now slowed down in the last week but is has been hell. I want to know the name of the idiots who designed all this.

"I need my independence. I should not have to be asking people to help with my shopping because I cannot easily get to my house.

"It is taking me over an hour to do a 15 minute drive to the shops and back. It has just been hell. You imagine 24/7 bright lights and machinery outside your front door.

"There has been no organisation. We have had all these meetings and nothing. It is their bad organisation that has got up my nose."

Disruption has limited Celia's access to her driveway which has been churned up by lorries going up to the underpass near her home. She has been told the company will repair the damage.

Meanwhile, a business owner – who did not want to be named – on the same stretch of road claims their takings are down at least 50% as they have been regularly cut off from passing trade.

They said: "There have been no customers. I have been at my wits' end. I have had to let staff go and cut their hours down to the bare minimum.

"I am doing all the work by myself most of the time. I am so stressed by it all.

"We have been shut off like a little island. We might as well have water around us, no-one can get to us."

The A296 daytime closures were removed on Saturday, March 26 and part of the lay-by opened, although parts will now remain shut until April 29.

An end date for the works is listed as 2022-23 but Ashley Johnson, assistant secretary of Bean Residents' Association, says it had been a "nightmare" for a lot of businesses and residents with lots of the work taking place during unsociable hours.

"We think some of it has been unnecessary keeping people awake at night," he said.

"We know they have to get their job done but for weeks they have ignored our complaints.

Mr Johnson added: "It has been a real struggle. We are sorry for the people who are trying to get to Bluewater and being held up in the traffic due to what we think is poor traffic management.

"For businesses down here it is very difficult because their passing trade has disappeared because the road from Darent Valley Hospital towards these businesses has been closed."

The association has also claimed the most recent closures between February 19 and March 12 (see below) were not clearly signposted or communicated.

National Highways confirmed it has undertaken a feasibility study for car park improvements outside the Merry Chest and Forestrall businesses on Watling Street, escorted owners and offered them lifts through the works, provided a contact number to be helped through night-time closures and offered hotel accommodation for overly-noisy works.

It has also held meetings with stakeholders to discuss the concerns and says all closures have been communicated in advance.

A spokesman added: "There have been a few factors which has unfortunately caused a delay. The work along the A296 has involved working over a fragile gas main, so conventional methods to construct the non-motorised users route along the A296 could not be used.

"We therefore had to use other methods of work in order to ensure the work force and members of public were safe."

The team used non-mechanical excavation methods which increased the duration of works and there were design changes and poor weather which also contributed.

To find the most recent planned closures due to the junction works visit National Highways' website here.