A taskforce aimed at getting Hammersmith Bridge back open to motor vehicles met this week for the first time in over three years.
The group had held its last meeting under the previous Conservative Government in November 2021, but was reconvened on Thursday afternoon by Labour’s minister for local transport, Simon Lightwood.
The 138-year-old bridge has been closed to cars, buses and vans since April 2019, when cracks appeared in the structure’s pedestals. Only pedestrians, and cyclists who dismount from their bikes, are currently able to use its walkways - though the road running through the middle of the bridge is still shut as it is being redecked.
The cost of fully repairing and reopening the bridge has risen sharply in the years since it closed, and was estimated last year at £250m. It is unclear how long a full repair programme could take, though Putney MP Fleur Anderson told the Standard last week that it could potentially take until 2035 for the bridge to reopen.
Under the last Government, it was proposed that the Department for Transport (DfT) would pay a third of the total cost of repairs, with Transport for London (TfL) paying another third. The final third would be picked up by the local council - Hammersmith and Fulham - which owns the bridge.
But the borough authority said it would only be able to raise that amount of money via a road user charge or toll.
In December 2022, the council submitted a formal business case to the Government proposing how the bridge could be fully repaired - but says it never received a formal response from Tory ministers.
In total, the council is understood to have so far spent some £45m over the last six years on works to restore and stabilise the structure.
Along with the redecking works, engineers are also replacing the bridge’s corroded, seized components with new rubber bearings. Once that process is complete, in the spring of this year, the council hopes to fully re-open the entire span of the bridge for pedestrians, cyclists and scooter riders.
Thursday’s meeting, chaired by Mr Lightwood, included representatives from the local councils on either side of the bridge as well as MPs, TfL and City Hall, among others.
Those present at the session have stayed tight-lipped about the exact nature of the discussion and whether anything new was agreed, though Sir Sadiq Khan’s deputy mayor for transport, Seb Dance, was said by a City Hall spokeswoman to have found the meeting “constructive”.
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