Traffic gridlock across Woolwich and Plumstead due to bridge work
There is widespread traffic delays across Woolwich and Plumstead today as three weeks of work begin on a bridge near Plumstead station.
Buses are stuck for up to an hour having barely moved around the one-way system surrounding Plumstead bus garage. If you don’t have to travel, then don’t. It’s certainly not fun in the heat.
Newly commenced work on Pettman Crescent is the latest in a long line of attempts to rectify issues in this area. A quick search shows the end of 2023 and start of 2024 the same spot closed due to roadworks lasting between 27th December and 5th January.
Late 2019 and early 2020 also saw holes appear in the road surface on three occasions. Since then a number of shorter closures have occured.
Bridge work
This particular closure sees a number of buses on permanent diversion while work is undertaken. Work will run between 11 August and 5 September.
Bridge parapets are being replaced alongside waterproofing and resurfacing Pettman Crescent. Temporary traffic lights are set up on Pettman Crescent.
Plumstead bus garage and access is directly beside this point so you can imagine just how disrupted buses are from that alone, let alone miles of non-moving traffic in the surrounding area.
Later on this month Pettman Crescent will be closed at the junction with Plumstead High Street between 28th and 31th August.
Work is also ongoing beneath the underpass in an attempt to make it more attractive for pedestrians set to move into Lombard Square with 1,913 homes.
The first residents are due to move in imminently.
A full list of bus routes impacted can be seen here with many routes starting or finishing in different locations. There’s also details on road diversions in place.
Ongoing shambles
10 pm UPDATE: Problems are still ongoing near 10pm. Buses have been more than four hours late this evening if not curtailed.
Serious questions need asking as to why nothing was communicated on a wide ranging basis until Greenwich Council hastily put up information today with nothing in advance.
They appear to be angling towards blaming TfL this evening with the council leader talking of an urgent meeting with TfL, yet it’s a borough-managed road and Greenwich Council appear to be responsible.
Stories abound of people missing hospital appointments, deliveries to businesses unable to be made, some businesses even closing full stop as staff couldn’t get in, many people late for work, ambulances being stuck and much more beside. That latter point is extremely serious particularly considering temperatures are now above 30c when call outs are high.
How on earth this work wasn’t communicated beforehand on a wider level is a question that needs an answer soon and not brushing off. Local residents had letters from the council – so the authority were aware – but the impact goes far beyond local residents in Plumstead.
Impact across south east London and beyond
Areas of Blackheath and Lewisham saw no buses for extensive periods as did Greenwich and Peckham. Buses to Bluewater were delayed by up to four hours with long gaps in service.
Even if TfL took the lead, Greenwich council would know and should have communicated that far, far more widely. If Greenwich took the lead, why was TfL not apparently aware – or they didn’t communicate?
It again raises questions about how Greenwich Council’s highways department and TfL communicate and work together – or don’t – on transport.
As for what tomorrow’s meeting between TfL and Greenwich contains, well, it’d be fun to be a fly on the wall. Work cannot just cease forever on the bridge as apparently its structural issues.
It could be put back but ultimately whatever happens it needs to be far better managed and communicated.
I missed my hospital because of it and it took us over one hour to get in to Woolwich and the dri ee did not announce it
Quick note that walking through the underpass is somehow MORE terrifying than before due to lots of new graffiti, random building work fences left in random places, fly tipping…. and the ‘improvements’ are nearly finished. Its a mind bending F up of money and a wasted opportunity to take o e of the most horrible parts of lodon and make it nice. Classic Greenwich council awfulness (worse than incompetence)
3 hours of standstill traffic in this heat is diabolical
Gosh, what a morning. Managed to walk from the big Tesco in Woolwich to Morrisons in West Thamesmead; in the heat. 😭
At least I got my steps in…
Speaking of that underpass – what a horrible state. Also, it really did pong a bit.
Took an hour to get home tonight by cab on which should be a 30 minute drive.
I’m going to have to leave home at least 2 hours early to get to work it’s stupid.
The bridge is always a mess on my rides to work. If it’s not the holes and fractures, it’s the detritus and aggregates left on the road by contruction lorries. Not good when riding a scooter. I recall it being resurfaced five or six years ago.
I have always thought this one-way system should be got rid of. Close the southbound A206 road and demolish the bridge. The area there can be brought level and opend up. Have Pettman Crescent currently northbound to Western Way converted to a two-way, four lane road as it is wide enough to accommodate a two-lane diverted Western Way southbound along it. There would the issue of access to Nathan Way and the bus garage, McDonalds’s etc. The other is emerging from Tom Cribb Road if heading towards Woolwich or Plumstead. It would take a bit of work due to the gradient as the bridge meets Plumstead Road, but it can be done.
What a shambles! I joined the queue from the Woolwich Ferry roundabout and it took an hour to get past Plumstead Bus Garage in the sweltering heat.
Surely things cannot be left like this until 5th September?
The temporary 3-way lights are a big part of the problem. They are badly out of kilt on timings! Heading from Plumstead to Belmarsh they were on Green for around 30 seconds. From bus garage/McD they were on Green for around 45 seconds. Even worse the traffic from Belmarsh towards Plumstead get priority at a 2:1 rate over the other traffic. Why?
Whilst in the queue today an ambulance came through on Blue lights and got stuck in the congestion. Nobody could move anywhere to let it through.
URGENT rethink needed as this simply cannot stay the way it is.
Traffic jam lasted all day, from 7am until way past 10pm. I really feel for the poor people stuck in that but I’m also worried about residents, like myself, who live along this entire stretch of highway. All that traffic sat at a standstill, with their engines running – the pollution generated is going to be horrific if this lasts 3 weeks, and the heat will make it worse. Plus the noise it’s creating is really bad – there’s this constant hum of engines and then someone honks their horn every minute, sometimes simultaneously. So that’s 40 honks an hour or something.
Far more free flowing walking past this morning. Wonder what changes were made over night to improve things.
Oddly this morning the A206 was fine westbound, but gridlocked from woolwich to the gyratory, clear again from plumstead onwards
I was on the 472 bus from Hoveton Road, Thamesmead.
Got on at 7.45am to get to Woolwich Market. Still stuck on same bus in Plumstead at 9.10am. Roadworks on Pettman Crescent, Plumstead Bridge. Absolute chaos. Nothing is moving, heard one bus driver on another route state he was hour and a half late! Whoever thought it was a good idea to have roadworks and close a lane should be sacked!! This is causing massive delays and I was supposed to be at Woolwich market for 8.23am to get the 54 bus to Lewisham Hospital for an appointment at 9.15 for which I would have arrived in time at 8.43am.
Tfl sort this out 🤬
I had to reschedule my appointment that I waited 6 weeks for. I got off the bus in Plumstead High Street and walked further towards Woolwich as train was also delayed. Finally managed to get a bus over 2 hours later to Woolwich, and got on the DLR to Abbey Wood where I could get picked up to go home in Thamesmead.
I never received a letter from the council to advise of roadworks, if I had I would have avoided this chaos in the first place and found alternative route like Abbey Wood to Lewisham. I will be avoiding Plumstead and Woolwich like the plague for the next 3 weeks! I find it disgraceful that it’s ok to make people late for work etc by having the roadworks on during half tern but cannot have the kids late for school! The roadworks should be done at night or better planned not to cause absolute chaos for everyone!!
We left Tesco in Woolwich at 2.45pm yesterday to drive home to West Thamesmead, a distance of about 3 miles. We got home at 7.53pm. 5 hours in the queue. Traffic exiting Pettman Crescent given priority.