Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of infrastructure works on the (a) M20 contraflow and (b) M26 alterations in 2019.

Preparatory infrastructure works have been conducted by Highways England on the M20 and M26 in Kent as part of contingency traffic management measures, known as Operation Brock. Operation Brock has been designed to ensure that, unlike Operation Stack, the M20 will be kept open and traffic will continue to flow in both directions at times of cross-Channel disruption. As part of this, implementing the contraflow queuing system between Junctions 8 and 9 on the M20 will cost approximately £30 million to build and operate. The works to prepare the M26 for the potential use as a temporary HGV storage area are in the region of £5 million. The costs of these works will fall within the financial year 2018/19.