Work on Gravesend’s new £9.5 million transport quarter is set to get under way next summer.

Plans to introduce a two-way Rathmore Road linking Wrotham Road and Darnley Road were unveiled last year and have since been approved by Kent County Council.

It stands to transform the area around the town’s railway station.

KCC is intending to award a contract in March and hopes work can begin in June.

The cost is being covered by £4.2m in Local Growth Funding and a £5.3m Kent Thameside Strategic Transport Programme grant.

The link route will cross through the existing 225-space Rathmore Road car park, which will be replaced by a smaller car park of 64 spaces.

A house on the corner, 13 Darnley Road, and an empty Indian restaurant will also be demolished.

The scheme will introduce a new footway ramp to provide pedestrians with a direct connection from the car park to the link route, with a new forecourt to be built on the south side of the railway station providing a drop-off point, taxi stand and five disabled parking spaces.

Clive Road will remain open to traffic wanting to park at the railway station car park and the Thamesgate shopping centre car park.

Traffic coming along Stone Street will no longer turn out on to Clive Road but on to Railway Place.

Traffic lights will be placed in Clive Road and Stone Street to control traffic movement through the Clive Road/Stone Street/Railway Place junction.

Construction work is expected to take 18 months, leaving the scheme with an estimated completion date of December 2017.