One of the two northbound tunnels at the Dartford Crossing, which has been closed since yesterday, has now reopened following extensive repair work.
Shortly before midday on Friday an over-height vehicle travelling through the tunnel caused significant damage to critical systems essential to its safe operation. The tunnel was subsequently closed to allow urgent repair works to be carried out.Engineers have since completed extensive repairs to vital safety infrastructure swiftly and efficiently.
Louise Haining, Connect Plus Services Managing Director, said:
“Over the past 28 hours extensive work has been conducted by Connect Plus Services and its supply partners, to efficiently identify and repair the damage that occurred to overhead fans, fire suppression system and CCTV monitoring equipment.
“It has been an exceptional response from the collective team. I am extremely grateful for all those who have worked tirelessly to remedy the issues as quickly as possible and return the tunnel back to a safe operating standard.”
Sean Martell, National Highways Head of Service Delivery – Operations for the South East region, said:
“I would like to thank the public for their patience while these essential repairs were carried out. The damaged equipment is critical to the safe operation of the tunnel, and it was vital that all systems were fully functional before reopening.“We recognise the frustration this closure caused for road users, but the safety of everyone who uses and works on our road network must always remain our highest priority.”
Leading signals expert Peter Routledge, who worked on the installation of equipment to support free-flow tolling at Dartford told Highways News he was surprised an HGV could enter the tunnel, since there is an extensive amount of equipment installed to warn drivers if their vehicle is over-height:
“For an over-height vehicle there are broken beam detectors near the Junctiin 1A off-slip and on the next gantry which should pick up the over-height vehicle and then start the traffic management process. If detected, traffic signals are used to nudge through vehicles (this is an operator managed process) until the errant vehicle can be extracted, which involves red lights and barriers forcing a left turn into the Dartford complex where the vehicle is removed from the main carriageway.
“However, it’s worth noting that, to my knowledge, this is the first serious incident in ten years of operation.”
(Picture: Mapillary)
