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Ashford Road junction with Willington Street

This scheme will improve congestion and road safety at the A20 Ashford Road and Willington Street junction by redesigning the junction, smoothing traffic flow and reducing failure to stop at traffic lights.

The changes to this junction will include:

  • an upgrade to the traffic lights to include a pedestrian crossing on Ashford Road
  • wider lanes on the eastbound approach to Willington Street to stop larger vehicles blocking the adjacent lane
  • increase the length of the right turn lane to increase capacity
  • a new left turn lane into Willington Street from the A20 Ashford Road.

Scheme costs

The scheme is being funded from the Local Growth Fund and developer contributions and is expected to cost approximately £1.2 million.

Willington Street in Maidstone gets significantly congested, especially at peak times. New homes and jobs will increase congestion and could encourage drivers to use unsuitable minor roads and indirect routes.

These improvements will improve road safety, traffic flow and journey times across the junction.

Scheme objectives

The key objectives for this scheme are to:

  • improve the efficiency of the junction thereby reducing congestion
  • improve journey times and the reliability of journey times
  • improve road safety
  • increase capacity on the network to better accommodate further development
  • improve air quality.

Formal decision

The decision by the SELEP Accountability Board to grant Local Growth Funding for the Maidstone Integrated Transport Package (MITP) was made on 12 April 2019.

This improvement will provide additional capacity on the Eastbound A20 approach to the junction by extending the length of the two-lane approach and also providing wider lanes that will allow eastbound vehicles to pass the queuing right turning traffic more easily.

Currently, eastbound traffic is frequently blocked by larger vehicles turning right and this only adds to the length of the eastbound queue to the junction. These improvements will allow more traffic to move through the junction at each change of the signals.

To accommodate the additional widening of the eastbound carriageway, it will be necessary to widen the westbound carriageway into the existing verge and toward the Mote Park boundary wall.

On the verge, there are currently utilities and highway street furniture including road signs, lamp columns and a VMS sign which all need to be relocated. Utilities need to be retained within the verge to minimise impact and assist with future maintenance.

A short additional lane is also being provided on the westbound approach to the junction to provide additional capacity on this approach.

The timescales of this scheme are still to be confirmed. We will coordinate the works with other highway schemes and utility works planned for the local area.

Funded by

The government Growth Deal provides money to the South East Local Enterprise Partnership, funding projects which drive Kent’s economic and business growth.