Thursday, March 15, 2007

Thames Gateway bridge coming soon

Should anyone be under the impression that soon there will be a shiny new river crossing in Thamesmead we just one to bring your expectations crashing down with a bump. Whilst the Council say the decision will be taken in "early 2007" we doubt very much that it will happen before the local elections in May and the ever so tedious "national leadership battle" is over.

Some readers may think we're being cynical about this, but given the Minister in charge of the decision at the Department for Communities and Local Government conceded on Tuesday that she had no idea when the decision will be taken, you'll forgive us for expecting the bridge to be complete by about 2030.... at the earliest.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Fine by me. This bridge is pointless anyway. How is a brindge, connecting two very poor neighbourhoods together, going to generate jobs and wealth? What it WILL do is encourage heavy traffic from Dartford and Blackwall to take this new route, and end up choking Abbey Wood, Plumstead, Woolwich, Welling and Erith because the roads in those areas are not able to cope with that extra traffic and can't be upgraded without demolishing precious woodland.

10:15 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have heard that there was a deliberate gap left between the two current Blackwall tunnels for a possible 3rd tunnel?
Does anyone know if this is true?

If it is then this must be a better option as we already have the main road which, although congested is at least designed to handle lots of traffic, unlike the area the bridge would be in.
Also some world argue that the reason the road is busy is purely because of the over use of the tunnels.

We could then get a proper modern tunnel, which would not require works every night and would then improve transport. Or is this far to obvious.

4:48 pm  
Blogger Mark said...

There were plans to build a third tunnel. As far as I know there were two routes considered at various times, one went northeast to Silvertown and one went between the existing two tunnels. I don't know if that gap was planned or just going to be taken advantage of.

On some London A-Z maps you can see the proposed northern tunnel, my 1995 version has it on there.

I believe that the plans have been dropped now.

10:23 am  
Blogger _d_h_m_ said...

Excellent news for the Blackwall Tunnel and its long term popularity.

1:42 pm  

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