The bridge was constructed as part of a £100 million plan to improve the A249 between the M2 and the port of Sheerness. The Kingsferry Bridge, which previously carried the A249, suffers from two major drawbacks: It has only one lane in each direction and as traffic to and from the island increased over time it became a bottleneck. Secondly, it is a vertical-lift bridge. It needs to be raised regularly to allow marine traffic to pass under it, leading to lengthy traffic delays. Before its opening, it was estimated that 26,000 vehicles a day would use the new crossing.