In December 2016 Highways England announced a package of safety improvements for the A249 at the Sheppey Crossing following a thorough independent review.  Work on delivering these improvements is well under way, with the signage and carriageway markings being assessed, refreshed, or improved where necessary, and the speed limit being returned to the national speed limit. 

Now that the temporary 50mph limit has been removed the bridge returns to the national speed limit, which varies between classes of vehicles.  You can check what the limit for your vehicle is here –

The national speed limit will be enforced using a newly installed state of the art digital average speed SPECS Vector camera system provided by Jenoptik.  Average speed cameras work by measuring the time it takes to pass between the cameras over a measured distance, which provides an average speed for each vehicle.  The system then passes the two images and details of any offences it records straight to Kent Police for processing.  The system is currently being tested and commissioned, and will go “live” as soon as the commissioning process is complete.

In a statement today Highways England service delivery manager Arvind Patel said “We are absolutely committed to ensuring that the Sheppey Crossing operates safely and, following a thorough independent review of its safety, we have decided to reinstate the 70mph national speed limit across the bridge. However, it is important that people stick to the speed limit, which is why we are introducing average speed enforcement cameras at the same time. We are grateful to the safety camera partnership and to Kent Police for their support.

“The change is part of a package of measures that we are taking in the short, medium and long term to ensure that the Sheppey Crossing remains as safe as possible for the thousands of drivers that depend on it every day.”

Image of bridge courtesy of KM News