Hammersmith Flyover Re-Opens But It's Time For A Tunnel

Hammersmith Flyover: H&F Conservatives reluctant to
seriously consider A4 tunnel as they calculate cost
of  losing advertising revenue

The engineering works to enable the full re‑opening of the Hammersmith flyover has been completed and the flyover is now open to all vehicles. The flyover was dramatically closed on 23rd December last year and had only been taking limited traffic since January.

An investigation is now taking place by H&F's Labour Opposition to find out why H&F Council had failed to prepare for the possibility of closure when they had admitted they knew about this since last summer. Hammersmith residents suffered traffic gridlock and heightened levels of air pollution, even in residential streets, as cars and lorries sought new rat-runs to get off the A4. 

The flyover has about seven years of life left in it. After that it will need a refurbishment or there will need to be another traffic solution. My fellow Labour councillors and I are now campaigning for an alternative scheme involving sinking the A4 into a tunnel. At the Full Council Meeting on 25th January this year we called on the Council to present a united cross-party front and to:

• "Request the Greater London Authority to carry out an investigation into the circumstances regarding the deterioration and closure of the flyover.
• Request that the Mayor carry out a feasibility study into putting the A4 into a tunnel through central Hammersmith."

Sadly, H&F Conservatives voted that proposal down. I guess they're not interested in doing that as they don't want to lose the £1m revenue they get from H&F Council's new electronic advertising beacons as you can read here.

Transport for London now report that the current works to fix the Hammersmith Flyover have involved "the installation of concrete barriers as well as 22 kilometres of new cables within the structure to supplement the load capacity." 

Further updates about London’s traffic information can be found here.