Planning for the M25 J10 project
Case reference EIR2025/00286
Received 10 February 2025
Published 24 April 2025
Request
I would like to see the project plan for the M25 J10 works. Specifically:
1] the initial plan when the project started including key milestones
2) the plan as of January 2024 including reasons for any delayed
milestones
3) the plan as is stands today with reasons for any delayed milestones Ideally this information would be available on the project profile and update pages.
Response
Please see attached 3 documents titled:
1. M25 J10 programme extract_May 2022 - This is an extract from the first programme issued following the Development Consent Order being granted.
2. M25 J10 programme extract_March 2024 - This is an extract from the closest issued programme to the January 2024 plan.
3. M25 J10 programme extract_February 2025 - This is an extract from the latest issued programme
Please note that the extracts contain both high level and other significant project dates.
Although there is a delay to the completion of the entire scheme, what is actually delayed are the later activities of a complicated programme of works. The later activities include landscaping, which was constrained by environmental windows of opportunity, bringing into use the fourth lanes on the A3, and the commissioning of signage on a dozen gantries across the A3.
However, we remain on target to fully open the M25 and the new gyratory at junction 10 by late summer this year. At that point we expect a reduction in the long traffic queues that we have seen on all approaches to the junction, most notably at peak times on the A3.
Starting in October 2023 and continuing throughout the subsequent winter it rained heavily. This combined with a high-water table resulted in the ground we were working on becoming waterlogged for a prolonged period. While we plan for winter working, unfortunately these conditions meant that even the planned lower risk winter activities could not be undertaken.
In addition, work to create embankments and large drainage attenuation ponds that had been completed prior to winter, was washed away creating rework which was not in the programme.
At the same time as experiencing the above, we discovered that the buried utilities (water, electricity, telecommunications and gas), along the A3 in particular, were far in excess of what had been recorded on the drawings provided to us by the utility companies. Those that had been recorded were also not necessarily where they should have been. Although we make allowances for this risk and undertake trial holes and surveys prior to commencing works at key locations to validate the presence or not of services; what we experienced far exceeded our allowances.
The discovery of new services is extremely time consuming as we must treat any unidentified service as being live until proven not to be. Where services are live and need to be relocated, design alterations and discussions with the relevant utility company then create a new stream of activities.
The consequence of the above two issues creating more activities in an already compressed programme was exacerbated by the numerous planning restrictions that we must build into our programme. For example, all the land around junction 10 has some form of environmental designation. In the case of the Wisley and Ockham Commons, the heathlands are protected sites due to certain species and habitats, meaning they have the designation a ‘European Site.’ Transiting through and carrying work out in these sites has been heavily constrained due to certain annual windows of opportunity, and the squeezing of more activities into an already congested programme created knock on impacts.
Documents
This is National Highways' response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
You can browse our other responses or make a new FOI request.