The M26 is a

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, England. It is a short link between the M25 at

Sevenoaks Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506, situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parishes in England, civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter South Eastern Main Line, main line railway into Lo ...

and the M20 near

West Malling West Malling ( , historically Town Malling) is a market town in the Tonbridge and Malling district of Kent, England. It has a population of 2,590. Landmarks West Malling contains several historic buildings, including St Leonard's Tower, West ...

, which provides connectivity between southern England and the Channel ports in Kent.

Route

The motorway starts at junction 3 of the M20 and heads west, encountering almost immediately the single junction along its length where it has an interchange with the A20. This junction is numbered 2a to reflect its proximity to the M20's nearby junction 2 (also connecting with the A20) a short distance to the north-west. to the west the M26 merges with the M25 at junction 5. There is no exit from the M26 at junction 5 and all traffic must join the clockwise (westbound) M25. The next M25 junction, number 6, is west at

Godstone Godstone is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Tandridge District of Surrey, England. It is east of Reigate, west of Oxted, east of Guildford and south of London. Close to the North Downs, both the North Downs Way ...

so traffic joining the M26 at Junction 2a cannot leave the motorway for , the longest distance between motorway exits in the UK. On the anti-clockwise direction of the M25, the main carriageway continues directly onto the M26 at junction 5. To remain on the M25, traffic must turn on to the slip road which connects to the M25 spur coming north from Sevenoaks, which is

multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource— ...

with the A21. The awkwardness of junction 5 is a result of the history of the two motorways' planning and construction.

History

Construction of the first part of the M25 began in 1972 but before it opened, plans for the ''London Orbital'' motorway were modified to combine the southern and western part of Ringway 4 with the northern and eastern part of Ringway 3. To connect the two separate routes, which together were numbered as the M25, an additional section of road needed to be planned and the M25 route was diverted northwards from junction 5 to meet Ringway 3 at

Swanley Swanley is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England, southeast of central London, adjacent to the Greater London boundary and within the M25 motorway periphery. The population at the 2021 ce ...

(M25 junction 3). The remaining section of Ringway 4 became the M26. Until February 1986, the anticlockwise M25 simply became the M26 at Junction 5, as the M25 between Junction 5 and Junction 3 was not opened until then. A few hundred metres of the eastern end is the former A20(M).

Construction

Construction of the M26 began in October 1977, although a route on a similar alignment was originally proposed in the

Greater London Plan The Greater London Plan of 1944 was developed by Patrick Abercrombie (1879–1957). The plan was directly related to the County of London Plan written by John Henry Forshaw (1895–1973) and Abercrombie in 1943. Following World War II, London ...

in 1944 as part of proposed post war improvements to London area transport network. Those proposals were developed further in the 1960s as part of the

London Ringways The London Ringways were a series of four ring roads planned in the 1960s to circle London at various distances from the city centre. They were part of a comprehensive scheme developed by the Greater London Council (GLC) to alleviate traffic co ...

plan and the route of the M26 at that time formed part of Ringway 4 and would have been designated as part of the M25. Construction was slowed down by three wet summers and

Gault The Gault Formation is a geological formation of stiff blue clay deposited in a calm, fairly deep-water marine environment during the Lower Cretaceous Period (Upper and Middle Albian). It is well exposed in the coastal cliffs at Copt Point in Fo ...

clay. It was built by Cementation Ltd, with chief engineer was Ian Watts. It cost £18m. There were 300 people on the project; John Oldham was project manager for the Dunton Green to Wrotham section. There was good weather in 1979. The nearby M20, the West Kingsdown to Addington section, was being built at the same time, by Dowsett. But it would be many years before the nearby M25 was built.

Opening

It was opened on Tuesday 18 November 1980 at 11am at Wrotham by Norman Fowler, Baron Fowler and Mark Wolfson.

Proposed developments

New junction

Kent County Council Kent County Council is a county council that governs the non-metropolitan county of Kent in England. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county, which additionally includes the Unitary authorities of England, unitary auth ...

has been in talks with the

Highways Agency National Highways (NH), formerly Highways England and before that the Highways Agency, is a government-owned company charged with operating, maintaining and improving motorways and major A roads in England. It also sets highways standards u ...

over a possible new junction with the A225, allowing direct access to Sevenoaks – or access to the A21 at the M25 junction.

Brexit contingency planning

Plans to modify the M26 to hold large numbers of lorries in the event of a

no-deal Brexit A no-deal Brexit (also called a clean-break Brexit) was the potential Brexit, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) without a withdrawal agreement. Under Withdrawal from the European Union, Article 50 o ...

were publicly revealed in October 2018.

Junctions

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, 0.0 , 0.0 , bgcolor=ffdddd, — , bgcolor=ffdddd, - Gatwick, Heathrow, Redhill,

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is southeast of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 88,000 as of 2023. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, charte ...

Hastings Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to th ...

, bgcolor=ffdddd, No access to M25 Anticlockwise or A21 Southbound. No access from A21 Northbound or M25 Clockwise , - , rowspan="2", Wrotham Heath , 8.6
9.3 , 13.9
15.0 , 2a , -

Wrotham Wrotham ( ) is a village on the Pilgrims' Way in Kent, England, at the foot of the North Downs. It is north of Borough Green and approximately east of Sevenoaks. It is between the M20 motorway, M20 and M26 motorway, M26 motorways. History T ...

B2016 - Paddock Wood , , - , 10.3 , 16.6 , bgcolor=ffdddd, — , bgcolor=ffdddd, -

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, l ...

Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (), sometimes referred to by the Portmanteau, portmanteau Chunnel, is a undersea railway tunnel, opened in 1994, that connects Folkestone (Kent, England) with Coquelles (Pas-de-Calais, France) beneath the English Channel at ...

Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...

, bgcolor=ffdddd, No access to M20 Northwestbound, no exit from M20 Southeastbound ;Notes *Distances in kilometres and carriageway identifiers are obtained from driver location signs/location marker posts. Where a junction spans several hundred metres and the data is available, both the start and finish values for the junction are shown. *Coordinate data from ACME Mapper. ;Coordinate list

References

External links

CBRD Motorway Database – M26Pathetic Motorways – M26
{{DEFAULTSORT:2-0026 Motorways in England Roads in Kent