J2 is located to the northwest of the left bank of the River Medway, linking the A228 road to the M2, which runs between Strood and West Malling.

After the viaduct, the M2 runs past the Wouldham marshes and the suburbs of the Medway Towns, which include Borstal, which is well renowned for being the village where HM Prison Rochester is located, and which lends its generic name to institutions for young offenders.

As the M2 continues to pass the Medway Towns, it runs along the northern escarpment of the North Downs, and goes past Lidsing and Bredhurst towards J4, where it meets the A278 road at a more conventional grade-separated roundabout junction, reducing to a width of two lanes afterwards.

After J5, the M2 runs for ten miles along the gentle lower slopes of the North Downs as it nears the coast.

[7][8] The subsequent Strood to Swanscombe dualling, towards London, of the improved A2, was constructed from 1 June 1964, being seven miles, with a contract of £4,436,869 given to A. Monk Ltd of Padgate, near Warrington; it replaced a single-carriageway three-lane road.

[10] The new dual three-lane A2 section was opened at noon on Friday 29 July 1966, with the Bishop of Rochester, David Say, who said a prayer, and George Harris, the managing director of Monk Ltd.[11][12] During planning, the number assigned for the route was the A2(M).

[13] Aside from retrofitting the central crash barriers along the M2, as happened with all early motorways in the UK, the M2 did not change significantly until the 1990s, when the construction of the A289 road to the north of J1 resulted in J1 being reconfigured from a fork configuration to a fork-trumpet hybrid.

A joint venture between Costain, Skanska and Mowlem (CSM) created the company which would complete the project, which required the redesign of J2 and J3, and the construction of a new viaduct next to the existing one over the Medway Valley.

[21] From September 2021, National Highways are carrying out improvements to J5 of the M2, which will involve the construction of a new flyover for A249 traffic heading through the junction and new slip-road connections between the M2 and the A249.

[24] A289  - Gillingham A299  - Margate, Ramsgate Notes Geographic data related to M2 motorway at OpenStreetMap Download coordinates as: