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The Bridge


Dartford Beach

View from Greenhithe 


The Pathway beneath The QE2

The QE2 Bridge is as magnificent as it is imposing on the landscape. To truly see the secrets of the bridge you need to walk underneath it. Everyday this bridge carries vehicles between two counties completing the ring that is he M25 motorway but how many people can say they have seen its underside? You can join a footpath towards the bridge in two main locations. Next to the entrance of Asda in Greenhithe is a footpath which leads along to the Thames. If you follow it under the bridge you can exit at the 125 cycle route which take you onto the Bridge Estate.
Running alongside the QE2 are two tunnels beneath the Thames. They were opened in 1963 and 1980. The bridge opened in 1991. It is 137m high and was designed to carry 135,000 vehicles daily. Unfortunately, as anybody who lives in Dartford or Thurrock knows congestion has become progressively worse and there are frequent heavy delays which are the bain of our lives. Local roads turn to gridlock and.  It must be especially unpleasant for the residents of the Bridge Estate who are effectively trapped at the faintest whiff of bad traffic. Then of course there is the environmental cost of congestion! Occasionally the bridge is also closed when there are high winds so all in all local roads can be a bit of a lottery increasingly these days.
What did the bridge herald allegedly?
    'The beginning of the end of the massive congestion that has plagued so many hundreds of thousands     of people every day and every week for a long period of time.'

A rather ironic quote from the news archive from the transport secretary with an extremely posh accent.  He clearly is not a Dartfordian!
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