'Dirty' 100m Clapham Junction overpass set for £4.5m transformation next year

Plans to overhaul a ‘dirty’ underpass successful Clapham Junction wherever women consciousness unsafe are moving forward.

Wandsworth Council confirmed the last plan for the £4.5million translation of the way underneath Falcon Road Bridge, which connects northbound and southbound Battersea, volition soon beryllium chosen truthful that operation enactment tin beryllium carried retired adjacent year.

The authorization launched a contention successful August, successful concern with the London Festival of Architecture, asking for proposals to revamp the 100-metre-long underpass. It precocious moved into the 2nd circular of the competition, wherever residents are being asked for feedback connected their favourite retired of 7 shortlisted designs.

Labour assembly person Simon Hogg told the council’s transport committee connected November 19 that galore residents had asked for changes to the ‘rather unpleasant, somewhat dingy’ underpass. Regarding the shortlisted designs, helium said: “We are going to prime 1 precise soon. We are going to instrumentality it precise quickly.”

A study by assembly officers said the ‘extremely soiled and damp’ underpass has agelong been identified by residents arsenic the portion of Clapham Junction that needs astir improvement. The important way allows pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles to travel beneath Clapham Junction station, which is 1 of the busiest stations successful Europe.

The study said respondents to a caller assembly survey said they wanted the underpass to beryllium improved ‘because it felt neglected, soiled and unsafe’.

Many women who responded described feeling unsafe walking done the underpass, it added, including ‘one nighttime idiosyncratic being followed aft a displacement and incidents of catcalling reported, with galore women expressing their reluctance to locomotion done the underpass alone’.

The full approved fund for the strategy is £4.5m, including £500,000 for pre-construction work, £2.7m for operation enactment and a contingency of £1.3m.

The task is the archetypal measurement in wider plans being drawn up for the regeneration of Clapham Junction. The London Plan 2021, from the Greater London Authority (GLA), indicates the country could accommodate 2,500 caller homes and 2,500 other jobs, connected apical of the capableness for maturation successful the Winstanley and York Road regeneration area.

The assembly is putting unneurotic a masterplan for Clapham Junction to construe these policies into improvement proposals. It is moving with stakeholders, including the GLA, TfL, Network Rail and landowners, to conscionable emerging targets for the country and to amended the station.

The 7 shortlisted designs for the underpass are being exhibited online and connected show boards adjacent the bridge, with residents invited to supply feedback and bespeak their preference. The feedback volition beryllium shared with the judging panel, who volition take the winning plan connected November 29.

The chosen plan volition past beryllium developed further, with the purpose of starting operation enactment successful summertime adjacent year.