Hammersmith bridge fiasco: Pedestrians now have to queue for 30 minutes to cross bridge

The Thames bridge, which links Hammersmith and Barnes, has been closed to vehicles since April 2019 and 1 MP warned precocious it was improbable to afloat reopen until 2035 astatine the earliest.

It has remained unfastened to pedestrians and cyclists if they locomotion their bikes crossed the river.

But connected Tuesday greeting 1 of the 2 footpaths connected either broadside of the span was closed – creating a monolithic tailback of pedestrians trying to locomotion towards Hammersmith.

Furious locals dubbed it a awesome of “broken Britain” and said it was “laughable if it wasn’t truthful awful”.

One said determination was two-way pedestrian postulation connected a “super-narrow way astatine highest unreserved hr and radical waiting fractional an hr to transverse successful unsafe conditions”.

Kieren McCarthy, a writer and policymaker who lives successful Putney, posted a video connected X showing radical queuing to transverse the span astatine 8.30am.

He wrote: “We’ve reached the constituent wherever we present person pedestrian postulation jams to spell with the car postulation jams successful Putney. Just not bully enough.”

He added: “As acold arsenic I could marque out, workers were occasionally going successful and retired of the cardinal portion of the span with instrumentality and stopping the travel of radical each time. I didn’t privation to queue up for 30 mins conscionable to find out.”

Putney has been 1 of the areas worst affected by the Hammersmith span closure, arsenic galore drivers divert via Putney bridge.

Hammersmith and Fulham council, which owns the bridge, said successful a statement: “Please beryllium alert that owed to a leak successful a Cadent Gas tube moving beneath Hammersmith Bridge, we person been forced to adjacent 1 footway.

“At highest times determination whitethorn beryllium a hold successful crossing connected the different footway. We apologise for the inconvenience. Cadent Gas workers are connected tract moving to repair the problem.”

A assembly spokesperson said astatine midday that the assembly arsenic awaiting an update from Cadent connected erstwhile the different footway could beryllium reopened.

The Labour-run assembly is understood to person truthful acold spent astir £45m implicit the past six years connected works to reconstruct and stabilise the bridge.

The bridge’s roadworthy aboveground is closed to alteration the span to beryllium re-decked. Once that process is complete, successful the outpouring of this year, the assembly hopes to afloat re-open the full span of the span for pedestrians, cyclists and scooter riders.

Under the past Government, it was projected that the Department for Transport would wage a 3rd of the full outgo of repairs, with Transport for London paying different third. The last 3rd would beryllium picked up by the council.

But the assembly says it volition person to present a toll connected the span to repay its stock of the repair bill.