On This Day

Monday 18th November 1963

56 years ago

The Dartford-Purfleet Tunnel (now known simply as the Dartford Tunnel), linking Kent and Essex under the River Thames, was opened to road traffic. It initially served approximately 12,000 vehicles per day. The idea of a tunnel crossing was first proposed by the Ministry of Transport in 1924.Initial reports at the start of the year suggested a crossing between Tilbury and Gravesend, replacing a ferry service, but this had been rejected by July in favour of a route further upstream, near Dartford. By 1929, the total cost of building the tunnel had been estimated at £3 million (now £164 million).The tunnel was planned to be part of a general orbital route around London and was provisionally known as part of the "South Orbital Road". The first engineering work to take place was a compressed air driven pilot tunnel, which was drilled between 1936 and 1938. Work on the tunnel was delayed due to World War II, and resumed in 1959, using a Greathead Shield, similar to the work on the Blackwall Tunnel some 60 years earlier. The delay in work due to the war allowed the tunnel's design to be improved, which included a better ventilation system. After negotiations with the Ministry of Transport, Kent and Essex County Councils successfully levied a toll on the tunnel before it opened in 1960. The two-lane bore tunnel opened to traffic on 18 November 1963; the total project cost was £13 million (now £245 million) and it initially served approximately 12,000 vehicles per day. The toll was originally two shillings and sixpence, equivalent to 12.5p post-decimalisation, and approximately equivalent in purchasing power to £2.00 in 2015. The Dartford Tunnel Act 1967 gave Kent and Essex County Councils authority to change the tolls, and in December 1977, the toll was raised from 25p to 35p for cars, 40p to 55p for 2 axle goods vehicles, and 60p to 85p for HGVs.By 1984, the toll for cars had risen to 60p. The tunnel was expected to carry two million vehicles a year but by 1970 was carrying over eight million.That year, Michael Heseltine, then a junior transport minister, announced that a second tunnel would be built in conjunction with the North Orbital Road, later to become the M25. Construction was approved in April 1971, with an initial expected opening date in 1976. Work was delayed due to a lack of funds, which was resolved by EEC funding granted in 1974.The second tunnel opened in May 1980, allowing each tunnel to handle one direction of traffic, by which time the joint capacity of the two tunnels had increased to 65,000 vehicles per day. Connection of the crossing to the M25 was completed on the northerly Essex side in September 1982 (Junction 31), and to the southerly Kent side in September 1986 (Junction 1a).Following the completion of the M25 in 1986, the daily demand had grown to 79,000 vehicles.