Residents First

Hammersmith Flyover to shut for four nights from tonight

Transport for London (TfL) has said that Hammersmith Flyover will close overnight for four consecutive nights from tonight while engineers carry out repair works on the structure.

TfL has told the council that the concrete bridge, which is the main route into and out of central London from the west and M4 and takes 90,000 vehicles every day, will be closed completely in both directions from midnight until 5am the following morning, from Thursday through to Monday morning.

There is also the possibility that the flyover will be closed on Monday night from midnight until 5am on Tuesday although TfL are yet to confirm this.

TfL has also advised that it will provide variable message signs (VMS) on the A4, at either end of the flyover, and diversions will be put in place. There will also be advance warning signs on roads approaching the flyover.

Livingstone and the Hammersmith Flyover

Letter to the Hammersmith and Fulham Chronicle

Dear Sir,
In an interview for the Sunday Times, on November 21st 1999, Ken Livingstone said:  "I hate cars. If I ever get any powers again I'd ban the lot." Perhaps he thought traffic jams were a good way to punish motorists. Certainly he more than anyone else owes us an apology for the poor maintenance of the Hammersmith Flyover over the last 50 years.

He can't be blamed for the original failure to waterproof it when it was built. It was a project that the Labour-run London County Council was responsible for - but that was before Livingstone was in charge. It was this design flaw that meant when the road was salted the steel cables gradually deteriorated. However for 13 years of the subsequent 50 years (five years as leader of the GLC and eight as Mayor of London) Livingstone had ultimate responsibility for maintaining the Hammersmith Flyover.

Whether due to neglect or his anti motorist ideology he failed. He should accept a substantial share of the blame for the misery, damage to the environment and the economy which the recent chronic delays have caused.

A4: Make a tunnel a reality

Cllr Lucy Ivimy's speech to the Council meeting on Wednesday evening

The Hammersmith flyover was a triumph of modern engineering when it and the A4 were built in 1961. Both hugely eased the flow westward of traffic along the then Great West Road. There had been a debate on the relative merits of flyover and tunnel beforehand – but tunnelling was then relatively far more costly than now. And great noble expanses of concrete were fashionable then.

In the 1960s – and of course the planning of this took place in the 1950s – traffic and car ownership were a small fraction of what they are now. The number of vehicles on the road must have gone up by at least fourfold. The damage of that traffic has gone up by more – a small amount of traffic on a road brings welcome life, a very large amount is utterly destructive.

Ravenscourt Park Ward does not have the shadow of the flyover hanging over it, but it has been slashed in two by the almighty roar of the A4. Walk along it and the poison of that road, the noise, the pollution and the dead dereliction that abuts it, is striking. When canvassing, it is difficult ever to find someone in at a property adjacent to it. When I have done so, I have heard a litany of ill health which I am very confident is caused in no small part by the air pollution and the stress of the constant traffic roar.

Relocate as much of the A4 route into a tunnel as possible

Cllr Nick Botterill's speech at the Council Meeting last night during the debate on the Hammersmith Flyover

I don’t want to have a stale reiteration of the facts as members who were at the public meeting on 14 January, or who have read the various press reports will be well aware by now of the sequence of events which unfolded.

After overall safety, the first and foremost consideration for this Council had to be about the adverse impact of closure on our borough’s residents and businesses. While the Christmas period meant that traffic was light for a number of days, it also meant that obtaining reliable information and communication with TfL was very difficult.

There were at first serious questions about how much TfL understood about the flyover structure. The leader of the opposition - always on the look out for imaginary smoking guns - has already told me that he believes there should have been more prior knowledge by engineers.

The facts however are that the flyover is 50 years old and is constructed in a way which is almost unique. Well before Christmas there had been extensive monitoring by TfL of the structure for some time and the very best engineering estimates available were that it would be 2 to 3 years before comprehensive remedial action was necessary although a programme of some preventative propping was in hand.

Boris on site as work begins to strengthen Hammersmith Flyover

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, visited the A4 Hammersmith flyover today to inspect work being carried out to repair one of the most vital stretches of road in the capital as soon as possible.

The complex flyover was forced to close due to water damage that has corroded and weakened the cables that give the bridge its strength. It had been thought that it would be up to ten years before any major work was required on the flyover, however recent maintenance checks showed work would be required much earlier than anticipated.

A detailed investigation was launched immediately and a team of 80 Transport for London engineers, contractors, and leading structural engineering experts have been working nonstop on site and within the structure throughout the Christmas and New Year period.

The engineers have inserted cameras into the structure of the flyover at 100 different locations to assess key sections of the cables it contains. Today they told the Mayor that investigations of the extent of the damage to those cables must continue for a further week before engineers will be in a position to decide whether it is strong enough to allow its reopening even to light traffic.

Hammersmith Flyover update

The Council continues to press with TfL the concerns of borough residents and businesses to get the Hammersmith Flyover reopened as soon as possible.

Cllr Nick Botterill, Deputy Leader of Hammersmith and Fulham Council reports:

The assessment work has taken place inside the box sections so this is why no apparent work is visible. I am due to go inside the box sections myself on Tuesday to look at the situation and see the strain gauges going in.

In the medium term TfL is confident that a full remedial solution (involving creation of new tension steels) can be put in place before the Olympics and will give the flyover an extended life of around 10+ years. The work to do this will be undertaken as much as possible overnight.

The head of Transport for London, Peter Hendy, has sent Nick the following email:

Urgent solutions needed to re-open flyover

Hammersmith & Fulham Council is today demanding that London’s transport chiefs re-open Hammersmith Flyover as quickly as possible and offer practical alternatives in the meantime.

Transport for London closed the flyover on the A4 on December 23 with no advance warning, saying that ‘a serious structural defect’ meant it had to be shut to traffic. The closure, which came after several weeks of TfL inspecting the structure, has left motorists stuck in long tailbacks and caused traffic jams across west London over the past week.

H&F Council is calling for a full explanation into why TfL has closed the section of road and when it will be reopened. All TfL will currently say is that the flyover will be closed while engineers ‘undertake an even more detailed assessment of the complete structure’ until at least early January - including the New Year weekend when many motorists will be returning to London after the festive break.

Olympic transport website launched

Motorists can now find out how much time they will have to add onto their journey’s when the Olympics come to London.

By visiting the website motorists can select various destinations around London that they intend to drive to from Hammersmith during the Games, which take place from July 27, to August 12.

For example, the website advises drivers to add an addition 43 minutes to their journey from Hammersmith to Camden during morning peak hours. If you intend to drive from Hammersmith to the site of the Games in Stratford you need to leave 73 minutes earlier that you normally would. Hammersmith to Wandsworth during the evening will take an additional 23 minutes.

In the meantime, the council is reminding residents that the Games will bring significant transport disruption to the borough.

Cllr Nick Botterill, deputy leader and cabinet member for environment said:

Simpler rules for traffic signs welcomed

New guidance on traffic and parking signs is making it easier for councils to get rid of unnecessary signage and de-clutter the nation’s streets.

The Department for Transport (DfT) has responded to calls from Hammersmith & Fulham Council for more flexibility when deciding what signs or parking lines are created. As a result, the DfT has agreed to make signage ‘simpler’ and of a ‘more concise design’, and to remove unnecessary or duplicated signs.

The council called for the move last September (2010) as part of its 105 ways to slash red tape.

Cllr Nick Botterill, deputy leader of H&F Council and cabinet member for environment, said:

“This is great news for the enemies of waste and bureaucracy and is a victory for common sense. We have been saying for years that traffic sign rules and regulations are too prescriptive and this has spawned far too many street signs that lead to confusion and gridlock. Allowing councils to keep signage to a minimum will make things clearer for all road users and will reduce the need for ugly pillars or posts on our streets.”

How we are getting H&F moving

Over the last nine months, through its Get H&F Moving campaign, Hammersmith & Fulham Council has been asking residents and commuters for their views on transport in the borough – the good, the bad and the ugly.

And we received hundreds of comments telling us exactly what you think about roads, trains, tubes, buses, cycling and walking in H&F – well over 500 of them.

Cllr Nick Botterill, cabinet member for environment and deputy leader, said:

“The council really has to thank everyone who took the time and effort to join in to make Get H&F Moving a community venture.

“This campaign has captured people’s imaginations and stirred up a lot of interest. It’s been a real opportunity for residents to speak honestly about their issues with transport, to help themselves and others by making suggestions on where transport could be improved and to actually see changes happening based on their ideas.”