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The M20 is a motorway in Kent, England. It follows on from the A20 at Swanley, meeting the M25, and continuing on to Folkestone, providing a link to the Channel Tunnel and the ports at Dover. It is 50.6 miles (81.4 km) long. Although not signposted in England, this road is part of the European route E15.
Local traffic often uses the parallel A20 (the old turnpike road from Maidstone to Folkestone) or the A2 (the historic Roman Road from London to Dover via Canterbury), though neither offers the same capacity as the M20. [3] The road can be closed for days at a time, [10] and as a result Operation Stack has been controversial. [11]
North of Folkestone the M20 becomes a dual carriageway and enters the Roundhill Tunnel before crossing over and dropping down into Dover. This part of the A20 was completed in 1993 as a project included in the Parliamentary Bill for the Channel Tunnel. [ 6 ]
While traffic using the M2 decreased when the M20 motorway was completed from London to Folkestone in May 1991, [19] traffic heading into North Kent remained, and congestion along the route was increasing, primarily due to heavy goods vehicles blocking the outside lane. [20]
The M20 runs between the M25 and Folkestone, with a section of the A20 dual carriageway making up the last few miles to Dover. Effectively the motorway has carried nearly all cross channel traffic to and from the Port of Dover and the Channel Tunnel since the late 1990s.
The A20 ran to Eltham, Wrotham, Maidstone, Charing, Ashford, Hythe, Folkestone and Dover. The A21 ran to Sevenoaks, Tonbridge, and Tunbridge Wells. [1] With the increased traffic on these roads, the main towns were bypassed; and then in the 1960s two motorways were built: the M2 from Medway to Faversham, and the M20 from Swanley
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Folkestone services is a motorway service station on the M20 motorway at Westenhanger, seven miles from Folkestone in Kent, England.It was the second to be built on the motorway, and was opened on 9 January 2008.