Motorists in England were warned to avoid the motorway from 10pm on Tuesday

Hundreds of thousands of motorists have been urgently warned to AVOID the Dartford Crossing this week. The Dartford Crossing, also known as the A282, connects directly at both ends with the M25 London Orbital, one of the busiest motorways in Europe.

Carrying more than 50 million vehicles a year, the Dartford Crossing is designed to handle 135,000 vehicles a day, but the average is now 150,000 a day – on the busiest days, up to 180,000 vehicles use it. But motorists who use it regularly face closures this week, it has been warned.

National Highways detailed: “We are re-insulating and rebuilding the bridge carrying the M25 anti-clockwise between junction 31 (Lakeside) and junction 30 (A13) during July and August 2024. We made good progress last weekend; the hard and that of the lane over the bridge were re-insulated and surfaced.

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“If you plan to travel through the junction northbound while the works are taking place, please allow extra time for your journey.” From 10pm on Tuesday 30th until 5.30am on Wednesday 31st, Dartford East Tunnel will be closed to vehicles over 4.8m.

On Thursday 1 August, Dartford West Tunnel will be closed from 10pm to 5.30am. The following day, Friday, August 4, the West Tunnel will be closed again, but from 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. On Saturday 3 August the QEII Bridge will close from 10pm to 5am, while on Sunday 4 August the East Dartford Tunnel will once again be closed to vehicles over 4.8m between 10pm and 5am.

National Highways said: “We are carrying out an extensive program of repairs and maintenance work over the next few years to keep journeys safe and reliable for road users. To keep disruption to a minimum, we carry out our work overnight, usually between 10pm and 6am.”