Thames Gateway - The Bridge That Would Not Die

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Thames Gateway - The Bridge That Would Not Die
October 23rd, 2009 by Tom

Boris’s big sop to Bexley Council was the canning of the Thames Gateway Bridge, possibly (with the Greenwich Waterfront Transit) the most advanced project scrapped in the big bonfire over the last two years:

Mr Johnson’s official spokesman said: “What we want to do is stop pretending the tooth fairy will come. Some of the plans we just don’t have the money for and the others were never very good ideas anyway.”

So the Bexleyites would no doubt be rather surprised to see this New Civil Engineer on the 15th October:

London mayor Boris Johnson has stunned the transport community by making a policy U-turn on the abandoned Thames Gateway Bridge (TGB) just east of the Blackwall Tunnel [sic - it's a long way east really].

Johnson cancelled the bridge last year, saying he favoured a crossing at Silvertown further to the west. Both engineers and transport lobby groups were highly critical, saying the project had already attracted £200M in Department for Transport PFI credits and that work could have begun within eight months (NCE 13 November 2008).

followed by this on 22nd October:

Mott MacDonald is to lead work to revive the Thames Gateway Bridge (TGB), it was announced last week.

The consultant has won the contract to investigate new crossings of the River Thames between Tower Bridge and the Dartford Crossing following the publication of London mayor Boris Johnson’s transport plan (News last week).

Johnson abandoned the TGB last year, saying he favoured a crossing at Silvertown − now confirmed as a tunnel (NCE 6 November 2008). Last week he resurrected the TGB as a “lower capacity” crossing renamed Gallions Reach. He said that the crossing should initially be a ferry service that could then be upgraded to a “fixed link”.

…

Mott MacDonald’s study will examine a “new road tunnel and lifting road bridge between North Greenwich and Silvertown, a new vehicle ferry between Gallions Reach and Thamesmead, and a new lower capacity bridge at the former proposed location for the Thames Gateway Bridge,” according to a statement.

The resurrection appears to be in the London Plan, and should therefore be in the MTS too, which I have open here.  Ah, yes, Proposal 39(d):

Consideration of a longer-term fixed link at Gallions Reach to improve connectivity for local traffic, buses, cyclists and to support economic development in this area

So all that’s happened is that Boris has thrown away several million pounds on a scheme that would have created construction jobs during the worst recession on record and greatly enhanced economic prospects in a depressed area of London, and now has to start again, paying even more money to engineering consultants (who are doubtless very grateful) while any resulting bridge is delayed until at least 2020.  Your value for money Mayor at work there, ladies and gentlemen.

Of course, this (along with a slight relaxation in the London Plan about new roadbuilding) does bring my prediction that Boris would revive part of the Ringways a bit closer, since TGB is a direct descendent of Ringway 2.  I didn’t anticipate he’d kill it off first, then revive it, but who can predict the unpredictable?  Still, Gilligan will be fuming at his creature’s latest betrayal of the sacred cause of doing absolutely nothing to improve London’s transport system.