Silvertown tunnelling machine reaches Greenwich after crossing Thames

The first tunnel being built as part of a road crossing across the Thames has now reached the Greenwich side of the river.

Riverlinx’s website shows the tunnel as having reached 748.4 metres from it’s launch site in Silvertown.

It’s currently situated below a car park beside the Design District as it heads west towards the future tunnel mouth near the former gasholder.

In recent weeks a Transport for London’s meeting revealed the tunnel is currently overbudget and running behind schedule, and warns of the possibility of both getting worse.

Also in recent weeks, southbound traffic each afternoon has reached levels of congestion perhaps even beyond the daily queues pre-pandemic.

Greenwich queues

A website that archives TfL traffic cameras can be searched by date and time, revealing the extent of daily tailbacks.

The new tunnel will feed traffic to the rear of those queues, as both tunnel exists converge in Greenwich on the A102.

Nightly traffic regularly backs up from around Falconwood to Blackheath and east Greenwich, but recently traffic has often extended through east Greenwich and the Peninsula to near the Blackwall tunnel exit.

Silvertown tunnel does nothing to alleviate these daily afternoon queues, as traffic is heading away from the Blackwall tunnel.

North of the Thames sees the new tunnel emerge some distance from Blackwall tunnel thus not all vehicles are funnelled to the same point. This does not happen south of the river.