The Lower Thames Crossing will be fully sold to private investors and is not set to be completed until 2034, the government has revealed.
It has also appointed Department for Transport (DfT) civil servant Kate Cohen as the individual with personal responsibility for the road tunnel project, removing the position from a National Highways director.
In a letter outlining her appointment, published this week, the DfT said Cohen is due to be in place “until the end of the project planned for 2034”.
Latest estimates for completion of the road connection between Essex and Kent were “in the early 2030s”, while earlier this year National Highways stated it would be completed in 2032.
Its original completion date was planned for 2027, but the project suffered delays in the planning stage after the then Highways England first submitted an application for permission in October 2020. It withdrew that first application “in response to feedback” the next month, then did not resubmit it until November 2022.
Its development consent order was eventually granted in March 2025.
A funding model for the scheme, which is expected to cost around £10bn, has not been fully decided, with Budget documents last month stating that the Regulated Asset Base model is the Treasury’s preferred option.
The model sees construction funded privately and investors start to be paid back through service charges, in this case road tolls, before a project is complete.
The letter to Cohen said that among her responsibilities is “delivering the transaction for the sale” of the project and “developing an economic regulatory framework and legislation to achieve a successful transaction”.
Prior to her appointment, the senior individual responsible for the project was Shaun Pidcock, who worked for National Highways.
In October, a government source denied reports National Highways’ role in delivering the project would be downgraded as it moved forward.
Chris Todd, director of the Transport Action Network, which campaigns for sustainable modes of travel, highlighted the delays to the project and called for the government to rethink its private finance plans.
He said tolls at the other Thames crossing from Kent to Essex, at Dartford, would rise along with construction costs and the new crossing would ease congestion at Dartford for only five years.
“The government clearly has not learnt lessons from previous failed PFI projects that have cost taxpayers dearly and seems determined to press ahead regardless,” he said.
“It’s time Labour pulled the plug before it’s too late. It is taking much needed funding away from better value rail projects around the country.”
He added: “Ministers are telling us that renationalisation of the railways is good for passengers and taxpayers while doing the exact opposite with the country’s biggest road project.”
The DfT has been contacted for comment.
A Bouygues Travaux Publics-Murphy joint venture landed the £1.34bn main tunnelling contract for the project in December 2023, while Balfour Beatty was awarded the £1.2bn package for roads north of the Thames in January that year.
Skanska was named preferred bidder on the £450m Kent roads section in July 2023.
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Ian Weinfass