Drovers roundabout - M20 Junction 9, Ashford

Road widening and the installation of traffic signals at the A20 Drovers roundabout and M20 Junction 9 will improve access to the town centre from the west.  It will also provide better access to the nearby commercial and housing developments that are now under construction.

The works involved the widening of Fougeres Way and the Junction 9 slip roads as well as the enlargement of Drovers roundabout and M20 Junction 9.  To manage the increased traffic that Ashford's growth will generate in the coming years, all roads leading onto the roundabouts at Drovers and Junction 9 will be controlled by traffic signals.

A stunning new cycle bridge between Sainsbury's and Eureka Park provides a much better and safer route for pedestrians and cyclists and replaced the existing route through junction 9 that was affected by the road widening.

For more information, please see scheme plan (PDF, 1.3MB).

A construction contract was awarded to BAM Nuttall and work started on site in November 2009.

The £20.0m project was funded through Regional Infrastructure Funding the Department for Transport and Growth Area Funding from the Homes & Communities Agency.

Current situation

Drovers Roundabout
The roundabout and approaches were substantially completed in June 2011.  There are vehicle detectors that continually vary the green time to suit traffic conditions.  They will continually measure traffic queues and when they reach a critical length, they trigger the traffic signal to change to green.
The ‘Drover and Cows’ artwork have been refurbished.

M20 Junction 9
The improved junction and traffic signals became operational on 28 October 2011.  As with Drovers roundabout, there are vehicle detectors that will adjust the traffic signal ‘green’ times to reflect changing traffic patterns.

The Foot/Cyclebridge
The new bridge was opened for use by cyclists and pedestrians on 28 October 2011.

The bridge was erected in May 2011, please view a time-lapse video condensing into three minutes the 33 hours it took to install the bridge.