M20 Smart Motorway Upgrade Workers Complete 1 Million Hours Without Accident Or Injury

Roadworkers carrying out Smart Motorway upgrades on the M20 have reached a landmark of working more than one million hours without an accident or injury.

Highways England is spending £92 million revamping 6.5 miles of the M20 between the M26 and Maidstone, creating an extra lane in each direction, adding gantries and variable speed limits.

The Kier roadworks team delivering the project have been working since construction began more than a year ago without any of its employees on the road network suffering a work-related injury.

Around 2,000 members of staff have completed health and safety briefings and there are more than 250 workers on site each day.

Karen Davies, from Highways England, said: “Safety underpins everything we do at Highways England and I’d like to congratulate Kier in reaching this important milestone. A busy motorway like the M20 is a hazardous working environment and achievements like this are only possible with the right culture, with safety at its heart.

“We will continue to work closely with our supply chain to bring new and innovative technologies to the road network that increase safety for road workers and users, as well as improving efficiency.”

Paul Baker, project director at Kier said: “Safety is about taking ownership and responsibility for our own safe behaviours and those we work with, and also caring and watching out for one another.

“We want to build a culture where people feel compelled to speak up about safety and hazards through leadership and commitment to stop accidents, as all accidents are preventable”

Over the next five years Highways England plans to invest over £11 billion to modernise and maintain the network.

Roadworks under construction along the Kent Corridor in addition to the work taking place upgrading the M20 to a smart motorway between Junctions 3 and 5 and work to improve the resilience of the M20 to cross channel disruption include creating a new junction on the M20 near Ashford.

In addition, plans have been published to upgrade two junctions on the A2 and a new flyover for the M2 at junction 5 near Stockbury.