Iconic Hammersmith Flyover fully refurbished

Transport for London (TfL) has today announced the completion of a comprehensive £100M scheme to strengthen and significantly improve the fabric of the iconic Hammersmith Flyover.

The restoration – undertaken by TfL, principal contractor Costain, and sub-contractors Freyssinet and SSL to name but a few – has bolstered 11 of the flyover’s 16 spans and follows the strengthening of an initial five in 2012.

Practical completion marks the most recent milestone in TfL’s ongoing £4Bn Road Modernisation Plan – the largest investment in London’s road network for a generation.

The refurbishment entailed the installation of new tensioning cables – totalling 6.5km in length – to restore structural strength, the re-waterproofing and resurfacing of the entire flyover with new drainage fitted throughout, and the inclusion of over 150 tonnes of steel beams and bars inside the structure to accommodate the new tensioning system and reinforce the concrete.

Garrett Emmerson, Chief Operating Officer for Surface Transport at TfL, said: “We are committed to ensuring that London’s road network is safe, reliable and well cared for. The work carried out on the Hammersmith Flyover in the last two years has been vital to ensure that the structure, a key London road artery, remains safe for many years to come.

“The engineering prowess of the team at Hammersmith has meant that the flyover has been kept open to traffic for more than 90% of the duration of the work, and I would like to thank all local residents and road users for having borne with us whilst the work was carried out.”

Edmund King, AA president said: “TfL engineers working night and day on the Hammersmith flyover has now paid off. When the flyover was found to be unsafe just before the Olympics it was a nightmare. Since then we have had a refurbishment scheme that has been highly innovative and which has always sought to reduce the impact of the inevitable repair works on traffic on this vital strategic route.

“Several years on and we are almost there and we pay credit to the TFL, contractors, engineers and the communications teams who tried to prioritise the needs of road users and local residents. We also acknowledge the patience of local people and drivers who have had put up with inevitable occasional disruption. The lessons learnt from this unpredicted failure of a major artery should hopefully mean an event on this scale will not be repeated in the capital.”

TfL is currently clearing the site of construction equipment and materials, with local roads expected to return to normal in late autumn.

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