The U.K.’s Department for Transport (DfT) is to provide $3.6 million to enable cyclists to use Hammersmith Bridge in London following its closure to all traffic in 2019 after cracks in the bridge worsened during a heatwave. Cyclists and pedestrians were later allowed to use the bridge, but cyclists had to share a footway with pedestrians.
The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham owns the bridge and is responsible for its maintenance, with the new government funding enabling the introduction of a new, fully resurfaced cycle lane expected in November this year, until further strengthening work can begin.
Once the resurfacing works are completed, cyclists will no longer have to dismount from their bikes and use the separate footpath, allowing them to cross the bridge quickly and separately from pedestrians.
A temporary cycle lane was installed by the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in February this year.
The U.K. government hopes to reopen the bridge to all traffic in the future.
Leo Murray, co-director of climate charity Possible which has been campaigning for the bridge to be permamently open to cyclists and pedestrians, said:
“With a proper cycle crossing over the Thames here, most people will be able to make the local journeys they need to in a clean, cheap and healthy way that helps solve London’s environmental problems instead of making them worse.”
A spokesperson for the Hammersmith and Fulham branch of the London Cycling Campaign said: “Active travel across Hammersmith Bridge improves the outcomes for all, with quieter and safer streets on both sides while providing the links that join up the utilities and services in Hammersmith with the residents to the south. Hopefully [the new funding] will go some way towards providing a link up service for the mobility limited that had been lacking.”
Hammersmith Bridge was built in 1887 and is one of the world’s oldest suspension bridges making it costly to repair.
