A2500 Lower Road
- Capital Investment - Kent & Medway, Less than £2m, LGF3
Approval Status
Fully Approved
Delivery Status
LGF Project Delivered
Project Completion Date
Spring 2019
The A2500 Lower Road improvements project will realign and improve the capacity of the existing A2500 Lower Road/Barton Hill Junction. This signalised priority junction is currently a pinch point on the principal ‘A’ road that serves the Isle of Sheppey from its connection with the Strategic Road Network. There are already congestion issues at this junction and as such, the junction is acting as a barrier to the delivery of around 1500 new houses and jobs by 2031 which will be unlocked as a result of the junction improvement. 
The rationale for the junction improvement package is to implement the scheme to ensure the travelling public can place a suitable level of confidence in journey time reliability, thereby removing the very evident constraint that currently impacts on traffic flow conditions over extended periods of time. To remove the constraint, the signal controlled junction will be replaced by a 3-arm roundabout at Lower Road/Barton Hill Drive.
The A2500
The A2500 Lower Road is the principal local highway route on the Isle of Sheppey connecting, to the west, with the Sheppey Crossing and the mainland via the A249, and eastward with the B2231 at Eastchurch for onwards routes to Leysdown-on-Sea.
Significant congestion
The A2500 is currently subject to significant traffic volumes that results in unacceptable traffic congestion and delays during peak times (AM and PM) as well as across other time periods (Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday). This is a result of significant new development, general growth in background traffic and the largely tourism focussed economy on the Island. The local highway authority acknowledges the very real highway capacity issue that is having a demonstrable impact on the travelling public and which must be addressed to release further new development.
Capital Programme delivery update
Take a look at our update on the delivery of the Local Growth Fund (LGF) and Growing Places Fund (GPF) capital programmes.
£579m of investment to East Sussex, Essex, Kent, Medway, Southend and Thurrock
In total the SELEP Growth Deal with Government has brought £579m of investment to East Sussex, Essex, Kent, Medway, Southend and Thurrock. Over the lifetime of the Growth Deal (2015-2021) we aim to deliver 78,000 jobs and 29,000 homes across the SELEP area, with the Deal set to attract a further £960m of investment into the South East over the six year period.