The struggles over fixing London's broken bridges

Broadmead Road Bridge is a key transport link in Redbridge in north-east London, but it has been shut to motor traffic for nine months.

It spans the Central line and should carry four lanes of vehicles. It was closed as structural defects were found in the bridge. Cracks in the concrete were discovered and the internal metal reinforcements were corroded.

It has similarities with other infrastructure closures in the capital, including Hammersmith Bridge, and it too has resulted in a political row that shows little sign of being resolved.

The cost to repair the bridge is at least £25m, potentially more, but at the moment there is no funding to fix it.

To make matters worse, the diversion goes over a bridge which has been reduced to one lane due to a weakened footway.

Tony Scott is the chairman of the local football club, Woodford Town FC.

They were promoted this year, but Mr Scott says attendances have suffered due to the bridge closure.

"It's snarled up wherever you go," he says.

"This is a main thoroughfare, there's no other way to the stadium which is at the end of the road.

"It's having a detrimental effect on the attendances. They have got to resolve this situation.

"Someone needs to put their hand up and say look this is where the money is coming from - let's get this sorted out. It's affecting everyone."

Structural engineers are writing the principal inspection report from the inspections undertaken during the autumn and winter months for Redbridge Council to review and approve.

The next survey will involve concrete testing to determine the bridge's strength and level of deterioration.

It will also allow structural engineers to determine the bridge's current capacity and provide details for a report to be presented to the council, explaining its options for what it can do to reopen the bridge.

Jas Athwal, the Labour leader of Redbridge Council, says the bridge is "life expired".

But, he says, the authority, which owns the bridge, does not have the funding to fix it.

The council has an £800m annual budget but Mr Athwal says central government cuts to council funding mean there is no available cash.

"Every year 75% of our funding goes on adult social care children social services and of course, these are real human beings that we must look after and we're doing that," he says.

"To cut those services, decimate them, is not a choice that we are willing to make.

"The government has to fork out."

A letter from Transport for London in 2014 told the council that Tfl engineers had concerns about the condition of the bridge.

It also says "failure to take action could potentially lead to injury or service loss with the ensuing legal actions".

In further correspondence with the local MP, Tfl says "we are not aware of any works that were undertaken from 2014 to 2022. However during this time we have been undertaking our own inspections".

Sir Ian Duncan Smith, the Conservative MP for Chingford and Woodford Green, says after being told about the state of the bridge in 2014, Redbridge Council should have put funding aside.

He says: "The council talks absolute nonsense about this.

"The council knows it was always the reality that councils have the responsibility for these bridges.

"There was never any doubt... And so instead of shouting 'the government's fault, the government's fault' and playing politics with it, why not recognise most of the people in this area are simply having lives really messed around because the council has done nothing to sort this out?"

He says the council needs to communicate with TfL and see if there are any extra funds.

Redbridge Council says it carried out a range of inspections following TfL's letter in 2014 and repairs were carried out to concrete areas and the joints.

However, it says the bridge was constructed in 1937 and has now come to the end of its life.

The road was closed in July 2023 as soon as the defects were discovered to prevent serious injury.

Broadmead Road Bridge has clear parallels with Hammersmith Bridge in central London.

That bridge has been shut to motor traffic for five years, and the cost of the repair has escalated to £250m.

There the local council also says it cannot afford to repair the Grade II listed structure and is asking for government funding.

It has submitted a business plan to the Department for Transport (DfT) to include tolling of the bridge.

Engineers will resume stabilisation works on Hammersmith Bridge on 28 May.

Meanwhile, the DfT has previously said Redbridge Council owns Broadmead Road Bridge and it was for the local authority to "determine the best course of action to repair and maintain".

Many non-trunk road bridges were transferred to London borough councils after the abolition of the Greater London Council in 1986. Many councils are now struggling to meet the costs of maintenance and repair.

Professor Tony Travers, from London School of Economics, says the problems seem to be systemic.

"Closing busy bridges in London because councils are cash-strapped is evidence of desperate policy failure," he says.

"Public spending in the UK is over a trillion pounds a year, yet the state cannot find the relatively tiny amounts needed to keep roads open."

Amidst all the accusations and acrimony, for those who used to use Broadmead Road Bridge, it could mean many months, if not years, of diversions and delays.

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