The M2 is a motorway in Kent, England. It is long and acts as a bypass of the section of the A2 road to run past the Medway Towns, Sittingbourne, Faversham, and to provide an alternative route to the Port of Dover, supplementing the M20. It feeds into the A2, forming a 62 mile long trunk road from London to (almost) Dover. Route The M2 starts west of Strood, Kent at Three Crutches, diverging southeastwards from the A2 road that heads ESE from Central London, one of five roads of dual carriageway width or greater reaching into the southern half of Greater London. From junction 1 it has four lanes each way that slope into the Medway Valley south of Rochester. On the west bank of the River Medway is junction 2 intersecting the A228 between Strood and West Malling, a junction where the master exit roundabout passes under the HS1 track and which retains, by footbridge and tunnel, the North Downs Way (a public footpath). By this point the road is mounted on the Medway Viaduct, passing over the Medway Valley railway and the river. On the east (right) bank are Wouldham marshes, south, and north are the elevated suburbs of the three conjoined Medway Towns including Borstal, a village nationally synonymous with its prototype 1902-founded Young Offenders' Institution. The M2 ascends a steep stream valley to Blue Bell Hill (under which HS1 runs in a tunnel) using split-levels to reach junction 3 (for Medway Towns and Maidstone) by Walderslade. It takes the north of the escarpment of the North Downs becoming a conventional three lanes, and runs northeast across Cossington Fields, Westfield Sole, Lidsing, and Bredhurst towards junction 4 where the road becomes two lanes to junction 7. Continuing east, passing Medway Service area, it crosses the A249 over the Stockbury Viaduct at junction 5 (for Sheerness and Maidstone East). It then takes the unusually gentle coastal lower slopes of the North Downs, below which before its end, is Faversham north of junction 6. It ends at junction 7, allowing traffic to continue on either of two dual carriageways: the A299 for six coastal towns including four on Thanet or the upgraded A2 towards Canterbury and Dover as far as Lydden, from the edge of Dover which then mainly reduces to one operational lane each way. History Original construction The initial section of the motorway (junctions 2 to