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Londoners are used to disruption to their travel. There are always tube closures or maintenance works or roads being shut off, but usually only for a few months at a time, maybe a year at most. The Hammersmith Bridge’s closure, however, makes that look like child’s play.
The bridge has been closed for six years already, and now it’s looking like it could remain that way for another decade. That’s right. Sixteen whole years to repair what is, in the grand scheme of bridges, a relatively small crossing.
So what’s the deal? In short, this Victorian suspension bridge is one of the oldest of its kind in the world, which makes it simultaneously very cool, and very pricey to fix. The government and the local council have been ping-ponging back and forth for the past few years on who is going to foot the massive £250 million bill. Last year a fancy new cycle lane was approved – but drivers are still waiting to be allowed back on the bridge.
And so that debate rages on, with no end in sight according to the local MP Fleur Anderson. She has cautioned that she believes that after six years of stalling, the price and scale of the project has risen greatly, stating; ‘Even if they started [now] it would be ten years of building. So we’re talking a long time away.
‘If [the last Conservative Government] had started, and they’d got on with it six years ago, we could have done it, but everything seems to have slowed down.’
She continued that; ‘There are variables we couldn’t even have imagined six years ago that have come in, so the longer it’s left the harder it seems to get’, noting that steel is more difficult to come by now due to the war in Ukraine.
‘I think 2035 is probably a realistic estimation. I wouldn’t go beyond that - I wouldn’t say it’s at least 2035. But it’s not going to happen within the next two or three years, for sure’, she explained.
Way back in 2020, a special ‘Hammersmith Bridge Task Force’ was created, but evidently wasn’t responsible for much change. They’re expected to reconvene soon, and Fleur is urging her constituents to write to the Department for Transport explaining how the closure impacts their day to day lives ahead of the meeting.
Sadly, that’s all you can do for now. It’s still better than nothing, and than getting to 2035 and discovering it will be another decade before it’s ready.
The Millennium Bridge is getting a £3.5 million makeover.
Mildmay line closures: Overground line will partially close at weekends until April.
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