For the thousands of workers struggling to get off the Medway City Estate every night, it is hard to believe that this is what the place looked like barely 30 years ago.

The picture above hangs in the offices of the company which started it all off and gives a remarkable snapshot of just how the estate has expanded with hundreds of businesses, employing a total workforce of more than 5,000.

Take away the pain of the nightly trial of getting home and it has been an amazing success story.

If Elizabeth Mace’s charming watercolour of Whitewall Creek shows an image of tranquility before the commercial invasion, the Google Earth image, right, indicates in stark reality just what an important area this is for business and industry in the Towns.

Surrounded by rural and residential hinterland, the India-shaped peninsula stands out with its dense array of industrial units and storage areas – and that transformation is set to continue.

Cliffe Contractors Ltd is the grandfather of the site, having built the first office on the business park in 1985, after the managing director David Fry bought up some land on the peninsula in 1979.

The company of civil engineers has since gone into the property market as landlords.

As well as their current building in Chaucer Close, and more than three acres in George Summers Close, they are they in the process of building eight new units to let out to other business, on land previously used for storage.

The work is expected to be finished by the end of the year and ready for the first tenants from January 1.

Matthew Day, the company secretary, said: “We’re being quite picky about who will occupy the units. They aren’t going to be large industrial or mechanical business with lorries. We need to keep the tenants we currently have happy.

“We’re looking to effectivity create our own little business park within the estate.”

They also have planning permission to add more office space to their current building, with an extra floor.

The traffic on the estate has been a bugbear for years, but escalated last autumn when surrounding roadworks meant people were queuing well over an hour just to get off the site.

Things have improved, and the council has worked to widen the lanes off the estate to allow traffic to flow up to the roundabout more freely.

There are other traffic measures in the pipeline as part of a £400,000 action plan, but the bottleneck congestion is still a daily problem.

Mr Day added: “Everyone who comes to look at these units asks about the traffic on this estate, it’s the first thing they question.

“We’re in quite a prime location though, nearer the entrance. Occasionally it will take 20 minutes to get off, but never more than that.

“Having some more workers here shouldn’t impact on the traffic.”

There are 15 full-time employees at Cliffe, plus a window and a printing company working out of the building.

When the work is done a new block-paved courtyard will mean there is space for 40 cars.

Boss Mr Fry said: “We wanted to build another access road, because Chaucer Close gets congested with people parking to take their children to Monkey Bizz, and often delivery lorries can’t get in but council rejected the plan.

“It is an ongoing problem, especially at half term. We’ve brought it up with council but they haven’t acknowledged it.”