By Local Democracy Reporter, Christine Sexton

Work on the controversial £8.2 billion Lower Thames Crossing could start as early as 2024 and be finished by 2029.

But concerns remain over its impact ahead of the bid's planned re-submission with campaigners fearing it will be a "smart motorway by stealth" that will result in fatalities.

If it gets the go-ahead, the 14-mile tunnel linking Kent with Essex will double road capacity across the Thames east of London, National Highways says.

Councillors on Thurrock’s Lower Thames Crossing Task Force heard during an update from Tim Wright, head of consents at the government-owned company, that a Development Consent Order (DCO) would be lodged with the government within the first two weeks of November.

Mr Wright said: “If we do that, we would go through an acceptance phase before Christmas and should we be accepted then we anticipate that will give us a DCO decision in 2024.

“There’s some preliminary work that will take place in 2024, assuming the successful grant of a DCO but then the main works will really kick off in earnest in early 2025 leading to a road opening date of 2029/2030.”

The project will be longest road tunnel in the country, linking the two counties via tunnels near Gravesend.

The crossing will ease traffic on the Dartford Crossing but Mr Wright said the new crossing would result in 20% reduction of traffic through the Dartford Tunnel – less than the 25% Thurrock Council says would be needed to bring the tunnel back to its intended capacity.

Task force chairman Fraser Massey said there were significant concerns about the impact of the new crossing on Thurrock roads despite Mr Wright’s claim that there would be an “overall improvement in traffic flow”.

Sara Muldowney, Labour councillor for Chadwell St Mary, said: “My ward, Chadwell is one of the biggest losers both during construction but also once the road is operational.

"The effect of that would have been basically to put Chadwell within a toxic triangle between the A1089 and the A128 Brentwood Road which would see between 50 and 80 per cent extra traffic in the operational phase."

Mr Wright was unable to give councillors answers on how rapidly rising inflation would impact the scheme.

Councillors were also unhappy they still had insufficient data on the health impact of the new crossing.

Labour Group leader John Kent said: “We all understand these are difficult and complex issues when building a tunnel.

"Can you give us some comfort that there is something in the offing that would stop Thurrock grinding to a halt as traffic tries to migrate from one crossing to another should something happen?”

Mr Wright said: “Clearly if one of the crossings closes it’s going to cause problems on the traffic network.”

Campaigners have also raised fears the Lower Thames Crossing will be a “smart motorway by stealth”.

“Clearly if one of the crossings closes it’s going to cause problems on the traffic network.”

Nationally, the use of so-called smart motorway technology has been paused while an investigation is conducted into their safety.

The technology allows motorists to be informed by overhead monitors of lane closures due to accidents and to the opening of hard shoulders to keep traffic flowing but they have been blamed for a number of fatalities.

Laura Blake, who is chairman of the Thames Crossing Action Group, dubbed the crossing a “killer motorway”.

Grilling Mr Wright at the task force meeting, she said: “We know that it is an all-purpose trunk road but it’s being built to smart road standards.

"When we’ve previously asked the difference between all-purpose trunk roads and smart roads we’ve been told the only real difference is the colour of the road signs.”

Mr Wright said the pause in smart motorways only applied to normal motorways that had been converted to smart motorways not to new ones.

He added safety was of the utmost concern and National Highways had learned from previous failures of the high tech motorways.

But Ms Blake, who believes the proposals won't fix the gridlock, wasn’t convinced, adding: “As for National Highways learning lessons, the majority of the people in this country do not agree with that because you have no consideration at all for how dangerous these roads are.

“They shouldn’t be called smart motorways. They should be called killer motorways because your technology and removal of those hard shoulders, exactly the same as we would have if the Lower Thames Crossing goes ahead, are deadly.

"You are saying you are going to have zero fatalities on the road by 2040.

"That is not possible...we know that the figures you have shared show that there would be fatalities and serious incidents on this road. It is a smart motorway by stealth.”

Mr Wright said zero fatalities by 2040 was only a National Highways aim but he said he believed there would be an overall reduction of incidents.

Last week new images were published by National Highways showing how the design of the project has changed since consultation began.

The M2/A2 junction near Gravesend has been redesigned to provide a more compact layout, which planners say has reduced the land needed and allowed the tunnel to be extended 350 metres south.

The A226 junction has been removed, which designers say will reduce the impact on the road network, air quality and noise receptors around Higham.

Other changes include lowering the height of the road, and reducing the number of lorries needed during construction from 17,500 to 9,500 by re-using excavated material on site to create landscaping features and two new public parks.