Hammersmith Bridge taskforce to be reconvened in efforts to resurrect reopening plan.

The taskforce charged with finding funding and solutions for reopening Hammersmith Bridge will reconvene after three years of inactivity, it has been revealed.

Additionally, decisions about funding from the Department for Transport (DfT) for remediating and opening the bridge will form part of the government’s spending review, which is due to conclude in the spring.

The 1827 wrought iron suspension bridge, a crucial central London river crossing, was closed in April 2019. It has remained shut to road traffic but is currently usable by pedestrians and cyclists.

In the first years after the closure, Transport for London (TfL), the DfT and London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham (LBHF) had agreed to split the cost of repairs three ways, but in January it was reported that the expected cost had jumped to £250M.

It was further revealed that the taskforce set up between the three parties to progress the reopening project had not met in years. With LBHF unlikely to be able to stump up a third of the costs – now at £83M – and TfL also struggling to fund capital projects, efforts had ground to a halt.

Now it appears that efforts are being made to breathe life back into plans to reopen the Thames crossing.

On Thursday 21 November, DfT permanent secretary Bernadette Kelly told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that “ministers have decided to reconvene now the Hammersmith Bridge taskforce, recognising, obviously, how important an issue this is to the resident of the Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham”.

She further revealed that the new minister for public transport Simon Lightwood (MP for Wakefield and Rothwell) will be joining the taskforce and “a date is being sought for that meeting”.

Kelly reiterated that the DfT has previously provided £13M “to ensure that the exploratory and stabilisation works could be done to the bridge” and added that “decisions on further funding will now need to be taken in the context of the next phase of the spending review”.

It was put to Kelly that TfL is ineligible to bid for funds for major road projects through the DfT’s National Roads Fund (NRF), which she confirmed. This is despite the fact that repairs to bridges in other parts of the country have successfully been funded through the NRF.

“I think we all need to reflect with this government on what the appropriate funding mechanism might be,” she added.

DfT director, roads strategy Dave Buttery, also at the PAC meeting, added the future of the NRF programme will be redeveloped as part of the spending review and that it will particularly look at finding “the right balance between renewals and enhancements”.

Hammersmith Bridge closure timeline

The 137-year-old Grade II listed Hammersmith Bridge closed to road traffic due to safety fears in April 2019.

Pedestrians and cyclists were later barred from crossing in 2020 due to cracking in the cast iron pedestals caused by the heatwave. A warning of potential “catastrophic” failure came shortly after.

The bridge was deemed safe to reopen to cyclists and pedestrians in 2021. An £8.9M stabilisation plan, put together by Mott MacDonald, was to be undertaken prior to a full repair job.

Phase 1 of the stabilisation programme started in February 2022 by contractor FM Conway and its subcontractors Freyssinet and Taziker Industrial. This required the replacement of the Victorian bearings, which had seized, with new rubber bearings. To enable this, hydraulic jacks needed to be used to lift the bridge off its pedestals.

However, the pedestals needed extra support to hold up the bridge when the saddles were jacked, protecting vital and historic parts of the structure.

Custom steel support frames were to be fitted around the cracked iron pedestals . However, thid was delayed due to issues sourcing the metal from Ukraine amidst the ongoing conflict.

The steel arrived in the UK in May 2023 in the form of 29 giant sheets. It was cut it into 1,220 pieces that were welded together to be fitted onto the cracked pedestals for support.

Four temporary and four permanent steel frames for each pedestal successfully supported the bridge and allowed the engineers to replace the bridge’s bearings.

This work was completed over the course of 2024 and has enabled the bridge to be fully reopened to pedestrians and cyclists.

A 1.5t weight limit remains in place while funding for the full strengthening and restoration programme is sought. When completed, this will see the bridge fully reopened to cars, buses and motorcyclists.

The contract for the strengthening work was put out to tender in May 2022. At the time it was valued at £130M. LBHF met with 28 interested parties and identified a shortlist of 10. However, with the project not having progressed and with the costs now far greater, it is likely that procurement will restart when a plan has been made.

Meanwhile, engineers have also carried out inspections to the foundations by drilling 12 boreholes around them, some up to 50m deep. This has seen engineers launch a barge into the River Thames and set up additional equipment on the riverside. The data gathered will inform the eventual strengthening works.