The U.K. government on April 12 announced plans for a $5.4-billion highway crossing of the River Thames about 80 kilometers east of London. The notification came weeks after London’s transportation authority launched a $1.4-billion twin-bore Thames tunnel, closer to London, in the dock area at Silvertown.

As with the Silvertown project, the new Lower Thames Crossing—from east of Tilbury on the north bank to Gravesend in the south, also will help to reduce pressure on the congested Blackwall tunnel in East London, says Chris Grayling, U.K. transportation secretary. The roughly 1.3-km-long twin-bored tunnels will carry a new 20-km north-south expressway under the river.