Some Funding for Hammersmith Bridge Agreed

The UK’s Department for Transport (DfT) has agreed to funding permanent repairs to the Hammersmith Bridge. DfT Permanent Secretary Bernadette Kelly has confirmed that the Government has agreed to provide ‘some funding’ for permanent repairs, during a Public Accounts Committee Meeting which was held on 15 October 2020.

However, Ms Kelly stopped short of revealing how much of the £141-£163 million repair bill the Government would foot. This comes after Grant Shapps, UK Transport Secretary, formed a Governmental task force to plan the next steps for the bridge.

Kelly said: “I don’t have the exact figure in front of me, but we are now providing some funding to repair the bridge.

“Baroness Vere our Lords peer is leading a taskforce aimed at bringing all parties together to ensure we can make progress on short-term solutions in terms of improving people access [across the Thames], as well as a long-term solution to the bridge itself.”

It has been a struggle to try to find funds for the repairs, as well as trying to find out which body ultimately has responsibility for the upkeep of Hammersmith Bridge.

The full cost of the repairs is expected to be between £141 million and £163 million with local council the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham estimating that £46 million is needed just to stabilise the bridge itself. In September, the former Transport for London (TfL) official who masterminded the operation of London’s roads during the Olympics was bought in to oversee repair plans for the bridge.

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