Sevenoaks Roadworks: M25 J5 Shut 4 Nights to 10 Sept

Last week’s headline closure has gone and a bigger one has taken its place. The M26 finished its three nights of tree work on Saturday morning and is clear for the rest of the week, and so is the A20 link road at Swanley. What replaces them is on the town’s own motorway junction: the M25 clockwise carriageway at junction 5 comes out for four consecutive nights. Underneath that, Kent County Council has made nine new orders for the district, one of which shuts a street in Edenbridge for up to 54 days and publishes no diversion at all. Below are the dates, the signed routes where they exist, and every notice linked so you can check any of it yourself.

The quick answer

The M25 clockwise carriageway at junction 5 is closed between the exit and entry slip roads on four nights, 22:00 to 05:30, on Monday 7, Tuesday 8, Wednesday 9 and Thursday 10 September, for safety fence repairs on the junction 4 to junction 5 stretch. The M26 has no closures at all for the rest of the report week, and neither does the A20 Swanley bypass link road. The A21 northbound exit slip at Morleys goes for one night from 20:00 on Wednesday 9 September. In Edenbridge, Station Road is closed southbound for up to 54 days from 12 September, with the turn in from the B2026 banned and the cycle lane suspended. Cotmans Ash Lane at Kemsing stays shut until 18 October. On the railway, Sunday 6 September takes out both Sevenoaks routes at once, so that is a bus day.

Last checked against the National Highways closure report covering 4 to 10 September 2026, and the Kent County Council notices published on 3 September and dated 4 September 2026, on 5 September 2026.

The M25 comes out at Sevenoaks’ own junction

Junction 5 is where the M26 and the A21 meet the M25 above Chevening, and for four nights running it has no clockwise carriageway. National Highways lists the closure as running between the junction 5 exit and entry slip roads, so clockwise traffic coming down from junction 4 has to leave the motorway at Sevenoaks and rejoin it on the far side of the junction:

• Monday 7 September, 22:00 to 05:30
• Tuesday 8 September, 22:00 to 05:30
• Wednesday 9 September, 22:00 to 05:30
• Thursday 10 September, 22:00 to 05:30

The work is safety fence repairs on the junction 4 to junction 5 section. The report records the diversion only as being via the National Highways and local authority network and does not name a single road, which for a closure that puts motorway traffic onto the roads around Chevening and Dunton Green is worth knowing in advance. Follow the signs on the night rather than guessing a route.

Anti-clockwise traffic is unaffected on all four nights, and so is the M26 itself, so the run east towards Wrotham and the M20 is normal. The nights all lift by 05:30, well before the morning commute.

The M26 and the A20 at Swanley are clear again

Both of last week’s closures have finished, and the closure report is the evidence. The M26 eastbound ran for the last time from 23:00 on Friday 4 September to 06:00 on Saturday, and it appears on none of the six remaining days of the report. The A20 westbound Swanley bypass link road, which went for four nights in a row for electrical works, is the same story: its final night ended at 05:30 on Saturday 5 September and nothing follows it.

That matters because the report does keep listing long-running closures on every day they apply. A road dropping out of it is evidence that the work is done, not evidence that someone forgot to file it.

A21: the Morleys slip, and four more nights at Pembury

The county’s own A-roads are quiet this week, but the trunk A21 is not.

The northbound exit slip at Morleys, the one drivers use to come off the A21 for the A225 and Riverhill into town, is closed for one night for maintenance works, from 20:00 on Wednesday 9 September to 06:00 on Thursday. If you are coming up from Tonbridge late that night, you are carrying on to the Sevenoaks bypass and doubling back.

Further south, the A21 is closed in both directions between Cryals Road and Pembury for surface works between Pembury Bypass and Forstal Farm, 20:00 to 06:00, on the nights of Monday 7, Tuesday 8, Wednesday 9 and Thursday 10 September. It had run every night of the previous week, so the change worth noting is that this weekend is clear: the closures stop for Saturday and Sunday and start again on Monday night. The northbound entry slip at Vauxhall, outside Tonbridge, also goes for survey works on the night of Monday 7 September.

Edenbridge: a street closed for up to 54 days, with no diversion published

The order to plan around is in Edenbridge. Because of a storm water connection, Kent County Council has made an order closing Station Road southbound between the B2026 Station Road and Station Approach, and closing Station Road outright between Minstrels Close and the WI Hall, on or after 12 September 2026 for up to 54 days. The right and left turn from the B2026 into Station Road is banned for the same period, and the cycle lane between the B2026 and Minstrels Close is suspended.

Fifty-four days from 12 September runs to the first week of November, so this is a half-term closure and a school-run closure, not a week of inconvenience. The notice itself is where it falls down: the paragraph headed “The alternative routes are via:” is empty. A statutory order that bans a turn, suspends a cycle lane and closes a street for eight weeks has been advertised without naming a single diversion road, so until signs go up there is no published route to follow.

Three shorter Edenbridge orders sit alongside it, all made rather than intended. High Street is closed outside number 83 for up to three days from 7 September for a new water connection, diverted via Mont St Aignan Way and Station Road. Hever Road closes for a day from 7 September for pole testing, from Phillippines Close for about 420 metres eastwards. And the B2026 Hartfield Road goes for one night from 20:00 on 10 September, between Lydens Lane and Marsh Green Lane, for carriageway retexturing and to replace the rubber inserts in the Halifax studs. That last one carries the longest diversion in the notice, a loop through Marsh Green, Lingfield and East Grinstead onto the A264 and back.

Six closures we flagged as unmade have now been made

On 2 September this page reported that a group of September closures had been advertised as intentions on 20 August but had not turned up as made orders. Six of them now have, in the notice published on 3 September: Station Road and the B2026 Hartfield Road at Edenbridge, French Street at Westerham, Hever Road, Edenbridge High Street, and four nights of vegetation clearance on the B2027 Tonbridge Road at Bough Beech. Those are decisions now, and the dates above are the earliest the work can start.

Two are still not made on the published record: Stones Cross Road at Crockenhill and Washneys Road at Orpington. Neither appears in the Sevenoaks notice or in the Dartford one published the same day, so treat those dates as provisional.

The nine new county orders

Kent County Council advertises its temporary traffic orders in the local paper, and the batch dated 4 September 2026 carries nine for the Sevenoaks district. Six are made, so they are decisions; three the council only intends to make, so they can move or be dropped. Every one carries the standard “on or after” wording, which is the earliest the work can start rather than a promise it will.

Ten Sevenoaks lanes queued for surface dressing from 21 September

A second notice dated the same day sets out the resurfacing programme, and it is the one with the longest reach. Kent County Council intends to make two orders covering ten roads in the Sevenoaks district: one dropping traffic to 40mph on the approach and 20mph through each working site, the other allowing each road to be closed outright while the work is done. Both take effect on or after 21 September 2026 and run for up to 18 months, with the actual dates published in advance and signs on site 14 days before each site starts.

The Sevenoaks roads on the schedule are Redhill Road at New Ash Green, Ash Road at Ash, Bore Place Road at Chiddingstone, Franks Lane at Horton Kirby, Butterwell Hill at Cowden, Pilgrims Way at Westerham and Brasted, Penshurst Road at Leigh, Mill Lane at Chiddingstone, Heaverham Road at Kemsing, and Pilgrims Way at Kemsing. Four of them, Ash Road, Penshurst Road, Mill Lane and Heaverham Road, are limited to 09:30 to 15:00, so they should be clear either side of the school run.

There is a problem buried in the schedule, and it is at Kemsing. The published diversion for the Pilgrims Way closure runs via Cotmans Ash Lane, which is itself closed until 18 October under an order made last month. Cotmans Ash Lane’s own diversion, in turn, runs via Pilgrims Way and Heaverham Road, and both of those are on this surface dressing list. If the council programmes any of the three before 18 October, the signed routes point at each other. The 18-month window means it does not have to, but it is worth watching if you live off the lanes above Kemsing.

Cotmans Ash Lane, Kemsing: eight weeks, not eight days

The closure to build into a routine rather than a journey is still at Kemsing. Cotmans Ash Lane closed on Monday 24 August and does not reopen until 18 October, while around 680 metres of new water main goes in, along with the connections and service transfers. The order runs from Clarkes Green Road to Ashdown Bungalow.

The signed route is a long way round the lanes: Clarkes Green Lane, Birchin Cross Road, Row Dow, Pilgrims Way, Childsbridge Lane, West End, High Street and Heaverham Road. Kemsing drivers who use the lane to reach the A20 or the M26 should plan for the rest of the school term, not the rest of the week.

A25 Bessels Green: still clear

The A25 Westerham Road closure at Bessels Green, which took out westbound traffic over the A21 on weekends through May, June and August, remains finished. The order Kent County Council made ran until 31 August 2026 or until the work was complete, according to the statutory notice for the closures, and nothing published since has extended it, including the two notices dated 4 September. The A25 over the A21 is normal in both directions, and a return would need a fresh order and a fresh notice.

The Dartford Crossing: a height limit tonight and tomorrow night

The crossing is awkward at both ends of the week. The northbound East Tunnel is closed from 22:00 on Saturday 5 September to 05:30, and again from 22:30 on Sunday 6 September, and on both nights the report is explicit that there is no access over the crossing for vehicles over 4.8 metres while the contraflow is in place. The M25 clockwise QEII Bridge, junction 31 to junction 1A, is also closed on the Saturday night for bridge maintenance.

From Monday to Thursday the pattern changes. The northbound West Tunnel and the junction 1A entry slip are closed 21:00 to 05:30, and southbound the A282 between junction 1A and junction 2, plus the junction 1B link road, comes out 22:00 to 05:30 for technology works. Those nights carry no published height restriction.

Sunday 6 September: no trains at all through Sevenoaks

It is not only the roads. On Sunday 6 September Southeastern closes Orpington to Tonbridge and Otford to Sevenoaks at the same time, which takes out both of the town’s routes for the whole day. There are no trains through Sevenoaks, Dunton Green or Bat and Ball, so it is buses or the car. The Otford link goes again on Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September, though the main line into London runs on both, and on Sunday 27 September the work moves south to Sevenoaks, Tonbridge and Wadhurst. Our September closure diary has each date, and Sevenoaks trains to London has the times, fastest routes and the last train home for the days that do run.

Sevenoaks station: the lift replacement is still running

The lifts between platforms 3 and 4 and the station footbridge were out of order from 17:00 on 7 May 2026, listed by Southeastern as out of service “until further notice” on its service disruption page. Those lifts have since reopened, and the station has moved on to replacing the platform 1 and 2 lifts, the next phase of a renewal running into winter 2026. We cover that in Sevenoaks station’s lift replacement.

While any of the lifts are out, step free access at one of the busiest commuter stations in west Kent is the thing to check before you travel. Southeastern points passengers to the nearest step free alternatives: Tonbridge and Chelsfield for Southeastern services, and Otford for Thameslink. If you use a wheelchair, travel with a buggy or simply cannot manage the footbridge stairs, it is worth looking at the disruption page on the day and requesting assistance through Southeastern in advance.

What it means for you

The practical takeaways for 5 to 12 September:

• The M25 clockwise carriageway at junction 5 is out for four nights, 7 to 10 September, 22:00 to 05:30. Clockwise traffic comes off at Sevenoaks and goes back on, and no diversion roads are named.
• The M26 and the A20 Swanley bypass link road are clear. Last week’s closures both ended on Saturday morning and neither appears again in the report.
• The A21 northbound exit slip at Morleys is shut for one night from 20:00 on Wednesday 9 September.
• The A21 at Pembury is closed both ways on the nights of 7 to 10 September, but not this weekend.
• Station Road in Edenbridge closes southbound for up to 54 days from 12 September, with the turn in from the B2026 banned. The notice publishes no diversion.
• Cotmans Ash Lane at Kemsing does not reopen until 18 October. That is the closure to build into a routine, not a journey.
• Ten Sevenoaks lanes go into the surface dressing programme from 21 September, with dates announced later and signs 14 days ahead.
• Nothing over 4.8 metres can cross at Dartford after 22:00 on Saturday 5 or 22:30 on Sunday 6 September.
• There are no trains at all through Sevenoaks on Sunday 6 September.
• Anyone needing step free access at Sevenoaks station should check which lifts are working before setting off, as the replacement programme runs into the winter, with Tonbridge, Chelsfield and Otford the nearest step free alternatives.

Closures and dates can change at short notice, and the orders allow the work to stop early if it is finished. National Highways advises drivers to check its closure report or the Traffic England website for the latest before setting off. If you are driving into town rather than through it, our Sevenoaks parking guide lists the main car parks and current tariffs.

Sources

• National Highways seven day road closure report, 4 to 10 September 2026 (the M25 junction 5 nights, the absence of the M26 and the A20 link road, the A21 Morleys and Pembury closures, and the Dartford Crossing nights)
• Sevenoaks multiple Temporary Traffic Regulation Notices, published 3 September 2026 and dated 4 September (the nine district orders, including Station Road, Edenbridge)
• Dartford, Gravesham and Sevenoaks multiple Temporary Traffic Regulation Notices, published 3 September 2026 (the surface dressing programme and its ten Sevenoaks roads)
• Sevenoaks multiple Temporary Traffic Regulation Notices, published 20 August 2026 (Cotmans Ash Lane at Kemsing)
• Sevenoaks multiple Temporary Traffic Regulation Notices, published 1 May 2026 (the A25 Bessels Green order and the 31 August 2026 expiry)
• Southeastern: planned engineering work, 24 August to 20 September 2026 (PDF) (the Sunday 6 September closures)
• Southeastern service disruption page (Sevenoaks station lifts)