Dartford Tunnel Crossing

Morning

I am sure that Most of you know that the toll booths at the Dartford Crossing are being removed in a bid to speed up the traffic.  You will now have to either pre-pay your crossing or cross and then pay within 24 hours.  All this is scheduled for October 2014, so I have signed up for information relating to how any where we are expected to do this as so far, it is not clear (well to me anyway).  To this end, I thought I would update you as I get updates.

"Thank you for subscribing to receive updates on the introduction of Dart Charge. We will be sending regular email updates to keep you informed about the changes and any action you need to take.



Need to know

• Dart Charge begins October 2014; we are finalising exact dates and will announce these shortly.
  
• Dart Charge website and customer call centre go live in September 2014 – you’ll be able to use these to pay for crossings and to set up a pre-pay account.
  
• We aim to have 10,000 retail outlets available nationally to pay at too. Our payment agent will be Payzone.
  

We’ll keep you up-to-date as we get more news.  

Pass it on! Dart Charge leaflet



Construction latest

We have installed five brand new gantries at the Dartford Crossing.

View a timelapse video of the installation.  

Four of these gantries will house the signage and detection equipment that will allow you to pay without stopping at a barrier, speeding up journeys for everyone. The other gantry will hold new signage.

We carried out the work overnight when traffic flows are lowest, keeping one tunnel open to northbound traffic to minimise disruption.  We coordinated this with other planned works on the crossing to make full use of every road closure and keep any disruption to a minimum.

What’s next

Advance construction work is set to continue over the coming weeks with changes to the junction 1a roundabout and Kent Marshalling Area – the holding area where vehicles with abnormal or potentially dangerous loads are checked before crossing.

Motorists may notice some lane restrictions on the approaches to the M25 Junction 1a Roundabout. These are not expected to cause significant disruption to the travelling public.

Overnight we will continue to use lane closures on the M25 and A282 to carry out signage work, with some short term closures of the slip roads where necessary. 

The new payment arrangements will be in place in October. We will then start the main roadworks to remove the booths and introduce a new road layout. This is due to be completed by spring 2015."

Thanks for the info cheryl,keep us all updated as it all unfolds!