M2 motorway (Great Britain)
Road in Kent, England
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The M2 is a 25-mile (40 km) motorway in Kent, England, built to bypass the A2 through Medway, Sittingbourne, and Faversham. It serves as a link between London, North Kent, and the Isle of Sheppey, crossing the River Medway via the Medway Viaducts. With seven junctions along the route for local and regional access, the motorway connects back to the A2 at both ends, while its eastern end also leads onto the A299 towards Ramsgate.[3][4]
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 M2 highlighted in blue_map.svg) Shown with UK motorway network | ||||
 A picture of the Medway Viaducts in 2008. | ||||
| Route information | ||||
| Maintained by National Highways | ||||
| Existed | 1963–present | |||
| History | ||||
| Major junctions | ||||
| West end | Shorne | |||
| East end | Faversham | |||
| Location | ||||
| Country | United Kingdom | |||
| Counties | Kent | |||
| Road network | ||||
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History
1959–65: Development and opening of the original motorway
The M2 was originally planned to be a direct link between London and the Channel Ports, which later materialised as the M20, and the current route was planned to open as the A2(M). However, after the Daily Telegraph published an article that misnamed the A2(M) as the M2, the Ministry of Transport changed the number of the motorway. Tenders for the original 17-span Medway Viaduct were issued in 1959, which cost £2.5 million to construct.[5] The section of the M2 between junctions 2 and 5 was opened by Ernest Marples on 29 May 1963,[1] and the rest of the M2 from junctions 1 to 2 and junctions 5 to 7 opened in 1965.[2]
1966: Cancelled extension and A2 improvements
The Ministry of Transport originally planned to extend the M2 to London and Dover.[6] Instead, due to a lack of traffic demand, the A2 was upgraded to a dual carriageway from Faversham to Dover and to a six-lane dual carriageway with hard shoulders from Strood to Swanscombe towards London.[7][8][9][10] The six-lane section of the A2 was opened at noon on 29 July 1966 by the Bishop of Rochester, David Say, and George Harris, the managing director of Monk Ltd.[11][12]
1980–2003: Traffic congestion and improvements around Medway
Mitigating traffic congestion on the M2 was considered as early as 1980 when a proposal to ban heavy goods vehicles from using the second lane on an uphill section of the M2 was debated in Parliament.[13] In the late 1990s, junction 1 was rebuilt to accommodate a link to the Medway Tunnel, which opened as the A289.[5][14] From 2000 to 2003, the M2 was widened from four to eight lanes from junctions 1 to 3 and to six lanes from junctions 3 to 4.[5] A new bridge was built in parallel with the original Medway Viaduct to double capacity.[15]
1993–97: Coach crash and criminal inquest
On 10 November 1993, a coach carrying 44 passengers to Canterbury Cathedral lost control and crashed on the M2 near Faversham. 10 people, including the driver, died from injuries sustained during the crash.[16] A disabled speed limiter was blamed for the accident, as it was later discovered that the coach was travelling at 78 mph before the crash.[17] In 1997, the criminal inquest was thrown out despite the jury finding that the deceased passengers had been unlawfully killed.[16]
2014 sinkhole incident
On 11 February 2014, a 16-foot (4.9 m) by 6-foot (1.8 m) sinkhole was discovered in the central reservation of the M2 between junctions 5 and 6.[18] The Highways Agency closed the motorway to monitor the sinkhole, which led to severe traffic congestion.[19] It partially reopened the motorway to traffic on 13 February.[20] After further inspections took place, the sinkhole was filled in and the motorway fully reopened to traffic by 20 February.[21][22]
2021-25: Junction 5 improvements
From June 2021 to February 2025, National Highways remodelled junction 5 of the M2 at a cost of £100 million to provide a flyover for A249 through traffic and improved connections between the M2 and A249. The main aims of the scheme were to improve capacity, connectivity and safety.[23]
Junctions
| County | Location | mi | km | Junction | Destinations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kent | Strood | 27.0 27.5 |
43.4 44.3 |
1[coord 1] |  A2 - London, Dartford Crossing |
The motorway continues westwards as the A2 towards London. |
| 28.8 29.0 |
46.3 46.6 |
2[coord 2] |  A228 - Rochester, West Malling |
|||
| Chatham | 32.6 32.8 |
52.4 52.8 |
3[coord 3] |  A229 - Chatham, Rochester, Maidstone |
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| Gillingham | 36.4 36.5 |
58.5 58.8 |
4[coord 4] |  A278 - Gillingham |
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| Rainham | Services[coord 5] | Medway services | ||||
| Stockbury | 40.4 40.3 |
64.4 64.9 |
5[coord 6] |  A249 - Sittingbourne, Maidstone, Sheerness |
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| Faversham | 50.6 50.8 |
81.5 81.8 |
6[coord 7] |  A251 - Faversham, Ashford |
||
| 52.3 52.6 |
84.2 84.7 |
7[coord 8] | A2 - Canterbury, Dover, Channel Tunnel |
The motorway continues eastwards as the A299 towards Ramsgate. | ||
| 1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi | ||||||
Notes
- Distances in kilometres and carriageway identifiers are obtained from driver location signs/location marker posts. Where a junction spans several hundred metres and the data is available, both the start and finish values for the junction are shown.
- Coordinate data from ACME Mapper.
- Coordinate list
