Greenwich bridge saw “uncontrolled collapse” during dismantling
Notes from the most recent meeting covering Silvertown tunnel construction reveal that a footbridge in Greenwich suffered an “uncontrolled collapse” while being brought down.
I’d passed the bridge shortly after and thought the way it lay in a heap looked a little odd.
It’s the second incident only brought to light by looking through notes from the Silvertown Tunnel Implementation Group meetinga and reports.
You may recall that the Blackwall tunnel saw an unexpected closure for some time earlier this year. I did as I was stuck on a bus for a long time in traffic at about 11pm.
It turns out some materials fell from height damaging the central reservation. Fortunately no one was hurt. That didn’t come out at the time. It caused massive tailbacks into the early hours and into the following full day.
Traffic levels
Notes from the STIG meetings often offer useful insight. It’s how we know TfL altered traffic modelling which now sees more vehicles expected to head southbound onto the A102 and A2 in Greenwich every afternoon compared to previous modelling.
Given the southbound A102 and A2 already sees vehicles crawling along in traffic jams for miles each afternoon, adding more traffic to the rear of it doesn’t bode well.
All TfL, the Mayor and others want to talk about is alleviating northbound morning traffic. They never mention the opposite direction and what will happen each afternoon.
Alterations to junctions is another issue covered. There’s mention of traffic light phasing or signal optimisation at areas including Kidbrooke junction.
This will be an issue that reveals a fair bit. More traffic heading past on the A2 due to additional traffic according to TfL’s SA4 modelling will contend with greater local traffic and pedestrians owing to thousands of homes being built in the area within a short radius of the junction.
There’s 619 homes coming from TfL directly next to the junction, around 400 from Greenwich Council and many more from Berkeley Homes.
Some arms of the junction lack signals for pedestrians to safely cross. Do TfL place traffic first with more vehicles using the A102 and A2 or people with thousands of new residents?
Those residents will be crossing to reach shops, public transport and a nearby school.
