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Britain gives go-ahead to new $13 billion Thames tunnel
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 25, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 24, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
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Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 25, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 24, 2026
Britain approves a $13 billion Thames tunnel to connect Kent and Essex, aiming to boost the economy and improve road capacity.
LONDON (Reuters) -Britain gave the green light to a new 10 billion pound ($13 billion) road tunnel for the River Thames in southeast England on Tuesday, in its latest backing for an infrastructure project to help revive a sluggish economy.
Britain's Labour government has put speeding up planning processes to deliver new energy and transport projects at the heart of its growth agenda since it was elected last year, backing expansion at London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports.
The Lower Thames Crossing, consisting of a tunnel and roads 23 kilometres (14.5 miles) in length, was granted development consent by the transport minister Heidi Alexander, the Planning Inspectorate said.
The tunnel will connect Kent, south of the river, to Essex, on the north side, improving connectivity and providing more road capacity for goods to travel between ports and central and northern England.
Finance minister Rachel Reeves said in January that the government was committed to the Lower Thames Crossing, adding that it was exploring options to privately finance the project.
The estimated cost of the project has now risen to 10 billion pounds from 5-7 billion pounds in 2017. It is expected to take six years to build.
The idea for an additional crossing in this part of the river to the east of London was first mooted as far back as 1989.
Formally proposed by the government in 2009, the crossing has been held up as an example of the difficulties faced in trying to get infrastructure projects off the ground in Britain.
($1 = 0.7734 pounds)
(Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Sachin Ravikumar)
The main topic is the approval of a new $13 billion Thames tunnel project in the UK to enhance connectivity and boost the economy.
The Thames tunnel aims to improve connectivity between Kent and Essex, providing more road capacity for goods transportation.
The Thames tunnel project was approved by Britain's transport minister, Heidi Alexander.
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