The Hammersmith Bridge Taskforce held its public meeting this evening via Zoom. As access was limited to under a thousand people, I thought it would be helpful to provide a quick summary to those who missed the meeting, and highlight just a few key points that I was able to scribble down as they happened.
An official estimated timeline was provided by the Taskforce for the full bridge project, as follows:
A few important points on that timeline:
1. The timeline hasn't even officially begun yet, as negotiations over funding are ongoing.
2. The "66 working days" for the ferry will begin on the day that funding for the project is officially approved. It is
not 66 working days from today.
3. Each of the five stages listed above are entirely separate from each other. This means that the "30 months strengthening" is a
further 30 months after each of the four previous stages are completed.
4. So to be absolutely clear, the time periods listed above are
not cumulative - i.e. the "30 months" is not a total of 30 months from the start of the project. It's 30 months after the completion of the previous 21-month stage.
5. If you were in any doubt about that, Baroness Vere explicitly stated that by the current estimates,
it will be up to "six and a half years" from now before Hammersmith Bridge is expected to fully reopen to road traffic, including buses.
Baroness Vere believes that there is a weak case for a temporary pedestrian bridge, as the timeline allows for the limited (and intermittent) reopening of the bridge to pedestrian and cycling traffic within the short- to medium-term of the project. She believes that by providing access to pedestrians/cyclists - even on a sporadic basis, opening and closing the bridge around ongoing construction and repair works - it would make the cost of building a temporary pedestrian bridge prohibitive. (I believe the estimate for building and removing the temporary bridge was something like £27m.)
There is also a consensus across the Taskforce that there is no viable business case to support the construction of (and no practical way to build) a temporary traffic bridge.
The full meeting will be made available at a later time. It includes a short but comprehensive overview of the extent of the damage to the bridge, and the substantial list of works that will need to be completed in order to properly refurbish and repair the bridge to the required standard. The emergency stabilisation works alone are estimated to cost £13.9m, while the bill for the full refurbishment is expected to reach around £140m to £167m (estimates still vary, and the Taskforce acknowledges that costs and timelines are likely to change, as the full scope of works is still not yet fully understand, and won't be until the detailed engineering assessment (the "4 months" stage on the above timeline) has been completed).
Baroness Vere made it emphatically clear that the Government has "no legal responsibility" to maintain, restore or finance the bridge, as it is legally owned by H&F. But she added that "in this special case", the Government accepts that it should be involved in resolving the current situation, but
no funding has been agreed at all to date. However, she also stated that the Government "stands ready" to provide funding for the project, "no ifs, no buts" - but she underlined there has to be a clear commitment for local funding from H&F and TfL as the main stakeholders (the owner of the bridge, and the wider city authority, respectively).
What is undeniably clear is that the claims made by the likes of Grant Shapps and serial bullsh!tter Shaun Bailey that the Government has taken 'full ownership' of the project, and that funding has already been agreed thanks entirely to Bailey's intervention, were wholly and utterly false. Indeed, Bailey's name wasn't even mentioned once during the entire meeting; it's blindingly obvious that he has
no involvement in the process whatsoever.
TfL has proposed that H&F may have to consider funding its contribution to the project by introducing a toll when the bridge reopens, with a toll exemption for local residents - but at this stage, that is nothing more than a suggestion for broader consideration (this is something that would have to be implemented and managed by Hammersmith & Fulham Council).
TfL is also urging the government to urgently provide funding for the project up front so that works can finally proceed without further delay, with some form of repayment agreement in place to enable TfL and H&F to provide their contributions at a later date once the broader financial situation improves. Baroness Vere said that the Government was completely open to this possibility, but that the Treasury cannot simply agree to put up the cash with no clear commitment, from H&F in particular, to establish how the council's contribution to the project will eventually be repaid.
TfL said that it has already spent £16m on the project since the original closure. H&F says that it has spent £2.7m on managing the situation and dealing with the 'crumbling bridge' since its closure.
On the subject of buses, TfL says that the frequency of the 533 will increase to 5 buses per hour in the morning peak from this Monday (which
snowman pointed out
a couple of weeks ago).
TfL's Heidi Alexander said that they are in "active discussion with Metroline" to try to secure additional buses to facilitate a further increase in service.
She emphatically ruled out the possibility of introducing double-decker buses on the 533 (because of the well-documented issue with the height limitation at Barnes Bridge Station), but reiterated that they are actively looking to introduce more single-decker buses to boost capacity on the route.
I hope that that brief summary helps for those who weren't able to attend the meeting, or who won't have time to watch it later.
