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Proposed_Thames_bridge_in_east_London_(picture_credit_HOK_and_Arup)Segregated cycle lane planned for £600m east London bridge
A design for a new £600 million bridge across the Thames in east London that would include a segregated cycle lane has been published by architects and engineers working on the proposed project. Whether it will see the light of day is another matter, with Mayor of London Boris Johnson having scrapped earlier plans for a similar crossing.
Campaigners led by the London Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) say that the bridge, which would span the river between Beckton and Thamesmead, would help ensure an Olympic legacy for the east of the capital and improve transport links.
The concept, designed by architects HOK and consulting engineers Arup, was launched yesterday, the 120th anniversary of the opening of Tower Bridge. East of there, the capital has just two fixed river crossings for road traffic, the Rotherhithe and Blackwall Tunnels, with cyclists only permitted to use the former.
Other options for bike riders wishing to cross the river in the east of the city include the Greenwich and Woolwich Foot Tunnels – although they have to dismount – and the Woolwich Ferry.
Since the conclusion of a successful six-month trial, they are also permitted to use the Docklands Light Railway, which crosses the Thames at two points, and the Emirates Airline, with each car taking a maximum of two bicycles.
The only bridge currently downstream of Tower Bridge is outside Greater London, the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge linking Thurrock in Essex with Dartford in Kent, but to use it, or the Dartford Tunnel which runs northbound, cyclists need to be taken across in one of the crossing operators’ vehicles.
Colin Stanbridge, chief executive of LCCI, which has organised a petition to gather support for the bridge, said yesterday: "Nearly half of London's population lives east of Tower Bridge yet they are served by only two fixed road river crossings.
“It is an area with huge amounts of potential and while the Olympics acted as a crucible for creativity and dynamism in the area, its future growth is being held back by this gap in transport infrastructure.”
During his first term in office as mayor, Mr Johnson cancelled plans for a major river crossing in east London, but Mr Stanbridge is urging him to reconsider his stance.
He said: "We know that the Mayor shares our enthusiasm for helping the east of the capital to maximise its exciting reinvention. The area is currently attracting the worlds brightest and best whether to the financial heartland of Canary Wharf, the Royal Docks development or the high-tech firms flocking to Silicon Roundabout in Shoreditch.
"New road river crossings linking east and south east London over the Thames will bring new jobs and homes to an area of the capital that has been overlooked for too long," he added.
However, Green Party London Assembly Member Darren Johnson said that the proposed crossing was not wanted by locals, and that it would add to traffic and create more pollution.
He told the London Evening Standard: “This new road bridge will bring more traffic, congestion and pollution to the streets of east London.
"Local people have been rejecting this bridge for over thirty years and the latest set of pretty artist drawings won’t disguise the fact that this new road will bring pollution and traffic jams to their area. East London has been growing fast and has benefited from several new public transport links in the last few years.
“Evidence to the last public inquiry on this new road showed that it wouldn’t help the local economy, but it would create pollution and congestion.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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37 comments
Yet more UK taxpayers money spent on London with the odd scraps thrown to elsewhere.
Sod all to do with "UK taxpayers", it's a Transport for London project not the national Highway Agency and following the consultation last year it appears near certain it will be financed as a toll bridge.
TfL is a government body, some of their funding comes from Central government...
All of TfL's money comes from the GLA and it's own ticket sales. It's the GLA that receives money from central government, the same as every other local authority in the country. Of course the reason why central government is in the loop, is to redistributed wealth to poorer regions, to which Londoner's tax bills are a large net contributor.
Whatever a local Government body chooses to spend its money on is between it and the local voters, and nothing to do with anyone else no matter how big the chip on their shoulder.
And as it's going to be a toll bridge, it'll be entirely repaid by the people that use it, the same as the QEII bridge.
The government funding isn't from GLA, the 2013 Tresasury Spending Rounds specifically states about the setting of Long Term budgets for TfL (as well as HS2), TfL is just a department of DfT. (Reading that for a OU assignment finally served a purpose!)
What you said rings true for everywhere else in the UK, just not London.
Yep, you're right, it does go direct from the treasury, the GLA is just responsible for negotiating that funding. Doesn't change any other point, London is a large net contributor to the rest of the UK.
I don't have any problem with that, in fact I support the principle. I just find it damn annoying when someone begrudges us spending any money on infrastructure of our own. If you're jealous of our smelly traffic congested bridges, then build your own!
Totally, I think most people are envious of the drive of the TfL policy, cycling or other forms, other LA's just seem to do bugger all about it
Yes, and when the rest of the country can generate the same income from such a modest investment then ...
I came down to London in 2002. The difference then between a Crane Operator up in Yorkshire and a Crane Operator down here was about £25k a year. London and the South East are the massive engine that powers the UK economy. That is a fact whether you like it or not!
Bridges east of the Tower have to have 50m clearance for shipping. Anyone who's ridden over tall bridges in France or elsewhere will know there's always a gale blowing at the top. This bridge would probably only have 500m ramps, ie 10%. A bridge here may be bike-accessible, but it won't be bike-friendly.
So? I'd rather have the climb than another 8-10 miles of detour...
Yep, me too. I used to ride across the Forth Road Bridge very regularly and seem to have survived intact. Now that's a longer climb across a much windier bridge.
When the second Blackwall tunnel was built, the amount of traffic using the Blackwall tunnels route more than doubled in a couple of years. This was far, far beyond background traffic growth in the rest of London, let alone the rest of the country. "Build it and they will come" has always applied with roads capacity.
With all of these projects, what was the impact on traffic on the previously used, now less convenient routes?
Yes, overall, the road use would go up, but these dramatic figures would be offset by smaller decreases in other areas mainly from route shifting.
Still, East London does need another river crossing, one that's also not exclusive to motorised vehicles like the current crossings are.
London's population has grown a great deal in the last 20 years and so has the number of vehicles being driven in the city and registered in the whole of the UKL. Constricting traffic flow in a particular area will hinder economic development. There are better ways too to encourage people to swith from personal motor vehicle transport to cycling or public transport, but that's something else entirely. And in any case, the public transport system is over-used as it is.
The bridge is needed. The eastern part of London has crossings at Dartford and the Blackwall Tunnel and nothing in between, other than the Woolwich foot tunnel and of course the DLR and tube links. I'm curious how many of the people making negative comments in this thread about this proposed bridge live in east London, either to the south or north of the river. And how many of those slating the idea make regular journeys using the existing links? I'm guessing not many and I've noted that the positive comments in favour of the bridge seem to come from those who know the area and understand the transport problems. Queueing at the Dartford or Blackwall crossings can take a very long time, particularly when some idiot truck driver has tried to drive an overheight vehicle through the tunnel and caused yet another 5km tailback.
There are ways of connecting this new bridge to the road network too, without having to bulldoze Oxleas Wood. Thamesmead has some very wide and currently underused dual carriageways on the south side of the river. Even the sections of road in Thamesmead that would have to be upgraded to connect with the A2 run through some of the brownest of brown, brownfield former industrial areas in the UK. They certainly wouldn't look any worse for some proper landscaping to get rid of the detritus of abandoned buildings, rusting machinery and heaps of fly-tipped rubbish. The existing South Circular needs an upgrade too and this could add in proper separated cycling infrastructure - there is room for a separate cycle lane pretty much all the way to the junction with the A2 but no-one has bothered to build it so far.
As for the pricetag, £600 million is twice what it would've cost in the early 1990s when there was a plan to build the bridge using a concrete box girder design, but Prince Charles threw his weight into blocking that and called it a carbuncle. Of course, he doesn't live in east London either.
The writer of the 853 blog post that I linked is actually a resident, and makes regular journeys using links.
As he says, what is needed is more links such as the East London Line, which is already running close to capacity only a few short years after opening, and has helped to put Haggerston back on the map after 40+ years in oblivion, not another road link.
A decent public transport link similar to the East London Line might help to regenerate Canning Town and North Greenwich, which are currently almost completely isolated from the rest of London, not least by the A13 trunk road, which shows how a big trunk road can decimate local neighbourhoods in cities, not regenerate them.
induced demand works like this:
Say, for example, they built a new cycle-only bridge over the Thames at a point where it was a long ways to the nearest motor-vehicle crossing, thereby making it significantly more convenient to cross on a bicycle than a car for that area... The result would be that some people (that previously used other transport) would ride across the bridge.
In the same way, a new motor vehicle link creates demand for itself by making it more convenient than various other alternatives.
This is the same way that the Netherlands and Denmark induce demand for bicycling: they build the infrastructure, and the fact that it is there, and more convenient (for many) than other alternatives, makes people use it.
The number of people who drive, ride, or take public transport are not fixed numbers but vary according to convenience levels of the various modes of transport.
I'm not going to use it as I don't live on that side, but all I can say is that having had to drive through the Blackwall tunnel on several occasions, a new bridge would be a great idea...
I wonder if there's better value for money outside of London town?
£600,000,000
for a bridge?
Have you tried buying a large amount of land (needed for the ramps and approach roads) in London recently? The construction of the bridge itself will probably be less than 10% of the total cost.
I don't want this bridge - east London is packed full of cars and congestion and pollution and this will make things much, much worse.
The local economy rarely benefits from this type of thing as it's only a cut through yet the locals will suffer greatly.
BUT THEYRE POOR SO F**K THEM.
The only people that will benefit are the owners of the construction companies that will build it.
Remind me where the Conservative party get their money from again?
Headline is slightly misleading. It seems to imply that a segregated cycle lane is proposed for a bridge which already exists. Instead, we find that a segregated cycle lane is part of the existing plan for a proposed bridge.
On a related note, it's a shame that it makes headlines to have cycle provisions included in future projects. It's a shame because this should be the norm.
Shame that cycles were not included in the "Millenium bridge" plan. Or were they? Are you allowed to ride across it?
No, no cycling on the Millennium Bridge. Not that it stops people, but it's usually too full of tourists taking selfies anyway.
Seems to me that bridges shorten journeys thereby reducing traffic, congestion and pollution. London is a city growing in population. It needs more investment in infrastructure to support that growth.
Of course the Green Party spokesman just wants everyone crammed on to smelly public transport.
How about building the bridge exclusively for the use of cyclists and pedestrians instead?
No! Local people have not been rejecting this bridge for over thirty years. This much needed bridge has been a political football for 30 years.
Nearly everyone I speak to is in favour of the bridge but we don't count as we live
a) in an outer borough and so are not important unless there is a mayoral election. And
b) live in the unfashionable end of Bexley Council.
I live in DA18 and my depot is in E6 and I usually start before 0600 so during the recent debacle of the Woolwich Foot Tunnel refurbishment my commute was via either Rotherhithe or Tower. Didn't half make my working day longer!
Lets consider one last thing. This is a fixed link and so by definition will be of the greatest benefit to cyclists. Bexley Council is the most rabidly anti-cyclist London borough. During the recent LCC Space for Cycling Campaign during the local elections only 9% of local election candidates supported the campaign; the lowest of any borough.
nota bene. Rumour has it that the money that had been set aside for the last bridge proposal was siphoned off to pay for Boris' vanity project - The Emirates Airline. Don't know how true this is but it would be interesting to know where the money went.
Lived near a rather large lake in SE2 till I was 14 then moved about 200 yards into DA18
I remember in the 1970s we were always promised that the Jubilee Line would come out there eventually...
Yep! Still waiting for that one and the DLR. It seems amazing to me that there is nothing except buses servicing an area and population the size of Thamesmead.
Cycling in London is an utter nightmare,its a fantastic way to explore parts of the city you would never see but the state of the roads,the traffic and lack of dedicated cycling infrastructure make it a death trap for the novice cyclists
Id advise anyone planning to cycle not to unless you are very very experienced,strong fit with excellent bike handling skills
Despite all the bullshit emanating out of Bozo Bullingdon mayors putrid backside cycling safety and investment in London has been an illusion,a fake PR propaganda exercise apart from abit of paint splashed here and there with no segregation from road traffic whatsoever
This country is just a regressive cynical self serving selfish pit of shit run by public school scum who bank on the plebs to vote them in every 5 years and promptly give us all a good buggering for our efforts
nothing will change here,not now,not ever,NEVER
Britain is just an uncivilised backward shitheap and i expect to die on my bike by the likes of Mr Penishead,its inevitable
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