Operation Brock has been deployed on the M20 motorway in Kent after queues of trucks continued to build up due to the closure of the French border.
Operation Brock will replace Operation Stack, which was activated overnight on Sunday as an initial response to France’s 11pm closure of the border.
Highways England had initially planned to deploy Operation Brock overnight on Sunday 27 December, in preparation for the end of the EU transition period on 31 December.
It has been bought forward to better manage the thousands of lorries stranded in Kent.
The BBC is reporting there are now 1,500 lorries stuck in Kent, according to figures from Home Secretary Priti Patel.
Operation Brock, which staged a ‘dress rehearsal’ earlier in December, involves a contraflow road layout on the M20 between junctions 9 and 8, with a long movable concrete barrier directing traffic safely.
It allows traffic to continue to use both carriageways, while queuing port-bound HGVs.
Operation Brock opens up more of the Kent road network than Operation Stack, which effectively closes the coastbound M20 to traffic.
When Operation Brock is in force, it is a legal requirement for hauliers only to use the signed routs for HGV journeys to the Port of Dover and Channel Tunnel.
If disruption is excessive, HGVs can be directed to a holding site at Manston Airfield.
Truckers who fail to comply with instructions face fines and further delays.
Operation Brock, added Highways England, “will remain in place until further notice”.
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