Hammersmith’s flyover could be buried in a tunnel
The Hammersmith flyover could be buried in a tunnel if plans by Hammersmith and Fulham council come to fruition.
Computer generated image of Hammersmith town centre (c) H&F Council
The flyover, built in the 1960s, forms a pretty ugly dark barrier south of Hammersmith town centre. The gyratory and unwelcoming road layout, all legacies of 1960s thinking, make it worse at street level.
There has been talk about doing something to improve Hammersmith town centre by burying the flyover in a tunnel for over a decade, but a review of the Hammersmith Town Centre Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) has put it back and centre as part of the council’s plans for the area.
The plans for the town centre could see around 2,800 new homes being built, and 10,000 jobs created, along with the burial of the flyover road, and a redevelopment of the Broadway shopping centre which includes the tube and bus stations.
The cost of constructing the fly-under is estimated to be £811 million, but once detailed design work and ground inspections start, expect that to rise substantially. With inflation and a timeline of several years at a minimum, a final budget north of £1 billion is not unrealistic.
Therefore, as always, how to pay for the construction of a new tunnel will determine whether the project goes ahead. At a time when the council is struggling to fund repairs to Hammersmith bridge, there’s limited financial headroom to pay for a tunnel as well.
The council has cited developer contributions, along with support from the national and London governments.
If the funding could be sorted out, then construction would be difficult, but once the flyover is removed, the council says that it is likely that a new east-west road will be required to provide access for local traffic, alongside provision of a cycle route along the A4 and more surface level crossings.
The council report said that Transport for London (TfL) welcomed the opportunity to work with the Council but that they do not have any funding in their current Business Plan to support the plans.
Realistically, the council is looking at this as a very long term project, with some medium term improvements in the town centre planned with the assumption that at some point, the flyover will be a faded memory.
Ideally we would bury the A4 from Barons court to the Hogarth Roundabout (who came up with that thing?) with only very limit options to join/leave.
If we are in cloud cuckoo land I can dream too
The report includes an analysis of this longer tunnel but concludes it is less value for money.
They wanted to do this in Barking & Dagenham wrt the A13 flyover, but have decided that its too expensive and they now plan to rebuild the flyover and put in ped/cycle facilities to mitigate its negative effects.
So they dont even have money for the Hammersmith bridge, but designed a new town centre?
Ok, I mean its nice to have plans, not that they will do it… 😀
Redeveloping the town centre pays for itself through property sales of the new buildings that are constructed.
Difficult to put new buildings on the Hammersmith Bridge.
Habitable buildings on bridges was very much a thing, historically, and could be done again (offices, retail or residential).
But the bridge would need to be demolished and replaced (or very radically altered in structure and appearance).
Now, if they could only manage to sell parts of the bridge to be rebuilt elsewhere….(with new components replacing the failed ones), well there’s a famous precedent for that, too.