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Road works leading onto a busy stretch of the A2 have been removed after they were labelled a "death trap" by concerned residents and motorists.
Concrete barriers were erected along the coastbound carriageway with a shortened eastbound slip road leading on to the A2 from Valley Drive.
A temporary diversion at the Gravesend East junction had been put in place to allow surveys to be carried out by Highways England as part of its plans for the construction of the proposed Lower Thames Crossing.
But motorists blasted the measures, which were due to run until January, as "dangerous" and a potential "death trap".
It comes after a spate of near misses in which cars were reported to have been forced to drive along the hard shoulder before joining the carriageway due to the shortening of the road.
Drivers complained of lorries speeding up behind them and affording them little room and speed to manoeuvre before coming up against large concrete barriers.
Concerned Strood resident Ellie Beadle had previously used the slip road on a regular basis but has since altered her route.
"The alternative is to stop and then try to join from a standing start"
The 54-year-old said: "It is too short, there is not enough room to get into the main carriageway before you come up against one of the barriers.
"Traffic coming up on the A2 is not visible to drivers until they are parallel with it. By then they have about ten yards to join the main carriageway, some of the trucks using the A2 are about half that length.
"The alternative is to stop and then try to join from a standing start," she explained before adding the "concrete crash barriers leave nowhere else to go".
She added: "I won't go back there until it is removed. I will go the long way around through Cobham."
Gravesham councillor Bob Lane said there had been numerous near-miss incidents reported over the past week, leading to several complaints to Highways England.
He spoke with highways bosses to raise these concerns and was told they had "suspended the works and were going to remove the barrier pending a rethink".
The concrete barrier has since been removed during an overnight closure which took place last night.
A spokesman for Highways England said: "A traffic management system was put in place on the A2 at Valley Drive to safely allow Highways England to carry out essential utilities surveys near to the proposed route for the Lower Thames Crossing.
"The system installed was compliant with industry standards, however following careful monitoring of its performance we have now removed it and returned the road to three lanes while we explore alternative ways of carrying out the crucial surveys."
