A multi-million pound contract has been awarded for a huge 3,600-spaced lorry park on the M20.
The area is intended to resolve the two decade problem of Operation Stack - an emergency procedure whereby freight lorries separate into emergency queues on either side of the carriageway.
The contract is valued up to £130m and is a key part of the overall £250m development announced by George Osborne in Autumn 2015.
The government has yet to make a decision as to where the lorry park will be built although two sites near junction 11 of the M20 near Stanford have been proposed.
The two sites proposed are both near junction 11 of the M20
If plans are given the green light by government, the construction giant Balfour Beatty will begin work on the park which is expected to be partially open by the summer of 2017.
It has been forecast that the number of goods vehicles crossing from Kent will double by the mid-2020s.
The early awarded contract is intended to minimise potential delays once the location is finalised, insist Highways England.
The highways agency’s project manager, Adrian Sheppard, said:
“We are pleased to appoint Balfour Beatty as our construction partner to work with us on a permanent lorry park in Kent in the months ahead.
“Operation Stack is only ever implemented as a last resort. We are working on plans for a new long-term solution that will ease congestion on local roads”
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