Hammersmith Bridge to part reopen in summer - but no cars

BRITAIN-TRANSPORT-BRIDGE
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The reopening of Hammersmith bridge to pedestrians and cyclists will form part of Transport for London’s latest Government bail-out, the Standard understands.

Hammersmith and Fulham council, which owns the bridge, will be asked to follow the backing of its own engineers to enable a partial reopening this summer.

If the council agrees to reopen the bridge on an interim basis, this will unlock Government cash for repairs to keep it open in the long-term to pedestrians and cyclists.

However TfL’s third Covid bailout – an announcement of which was yesterday delayed until Friday next week – will not include a commitment to fully reopen the bridge to motor traffic.

The 134-year-old iron bridge was closed to vehicles in April 2019 and to walkers and cyclists nine months ago, leaving tens of thousands of people a day having to take a long detour via Barnes, Chiswick or Putney bridges.

Cracks were discovered in the pedestals to which the steel suspension ropes are attached. Last week the Standard revealed the council was “actively progressing” work that could “allow the safe controlled movement and/or safe opening of the bridge to pedestrians, cyclists and river traffic as soon as possible”.

This follows a council-commissioned report by engineers Mott MacDonald, which found there had been an “insignificant” change in the strength of the cracked north-east pedestal since the bridge’s full closure last August, and that the impact of the cracked pedestal on the overall strength of the bridge was “negligible”.

A second report said the Mott report “provides a good deal of evidence” that the pedestal was likely to be stable, but said checks on the other three pedestals were required. This work has now been completed.

The view in Government and among many residents is that the council has been overly cautious in failing to reopen the bridge. The council closed the bridge after being advised of the risk of “catastrophic failure”.

Reports today claiming that the bailout had been delayed because of “deadlock” between TfL and the Department for Transport over the bridge’s £141m total repair bill were said to be untrue.

In fact, the interim reopening of the bridge is said to have been agreed, with another now-resolved issue within Government said to have caused the hold-up.

Julia Watkins of residents’ group Hammersmith Bridge SOS, told the Standard today: “Residents are waiting anxiously to hear if the bail out will include specific funding for Hammersmith bridge, especially restoring it as quickly as possible for pedestrians and cyclists.

“At the moment, women and children’s lives are in danger with the hazardous routes they have to take along unsafe river paths to reach work and school and the gridlock on surrounding bridges is causing shocking pollution. In a supposedly world-leading city like London, it’s shocking and embarrassing.”

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