By rosebell
Including a new road tunnel, Hammersmith & Fulham Council’s draft Local Plan was approved by the Cabinet in previous week and launching a six-week public consultation on the proposal will be up to the west London borough.
Being constructed in 1961, both the Hammersmith gyratory and flyover under this plans would be removed and replaced with underground road links by Transport for London, which is responsible for the roads.
Reconnecting Hammersmith town centre to the River Thames, moving the flyover and sections of the A4 underground would free up land for development.
“Just as the Victorians had the vision to put trains underground, we’re now doing the same with roads. The flyover has divided Hammersmith from the River Thames for more than 60 years. This plan will heal that divide by creating new affordable homes and offices, new green spaces and keep traffic flowing,” the council says in a statement.
The statement also addes: “There is a growing momentum in leading cities across the world to create road tunnels. Madrid where 56km of the M30 ring road was moved underground to reconnect the city centre with the Manzanares river, and Boston, where a tunnel replaced an elevated highway that had cut off the downtown city from the waterfront since 1959.”
The additional advantage of these tunnels is cuting air pollution, and currently no neighbourhood in Hammersmith & Fulham meets World Health Organisation guidelines for safe air.
The fund of this project would be provide self-financed by releasing land value for redevelopment and through financial backing of the Mayor of London, Transport for London, and central government.
The council says Hammersmith has tunneling history. In 1863, London opened the world’s first underground railway to reduce street traffic. A year later, Hammersmith became one of the first stations connected to what would become the Metropolitan Underground line.
