Tower Bridge closure: Second day of road delays after bridge is closed for repairs

Traffic jam: Bermondsey Street was busy with traffic because of the Tower Bridge closure.
Leni Candan (Twitter)
Francesca Gillett4 October 2016

Londoners were stuck in heavy traffic in a second day of delays caused by the closure of Tower Bridge for repairs.

Roads close to the bridge were deemed “a mess” yesterday as the city’s other bridges struggled to cope with commuters trying to cross the river.

There were further delays this morning as drivers and cyclists moaned about long delays along diversion routes.

This week is the start of a three month closure for Tower Bridge while repair work is carried out. It is set to reopen in the new year.

Congested: Bermondsey Road was clogged with traffic.
Roger Manser.

The Rotherhithe Tunnel was described as “utter chaos” yesterday while London Bridge and Southwark Bridge were choked up northbound with many drivers reporting they were late to work.

Cyclist Graham Fisher said his journey across London Bridge was “absolutely terrible” and called it “an accident waiting to happen” as bikes jostled with lorries.

Mr Fisher, who commutes from Peckham Rye to Toynbee Hall in east London, said: “I came up Bermondsey Street and it was completely, completely chaos.

Closed: Cyclists are told to dismount and so wheel their bikes across the bridge.
@roggys Twitter

“It was absolutely gridlock. Even on a bicycle it was difficult to get around. You have got some quite large vehicles.

“Then you go up to London Bridge and Tooley Street and it’s just completely utter chaos. It kind of felt like an accident waiting to happen.”

Mr Fisher added: “I felt a bit vulnerable really. It’s just the volume of roadworks combined with the volume of heavy goods traffic combines with the volume of cyclists, it was just quite frightening.

Old Kent Road was described as “chockablock” while Jamaica Road and the Highway were both packed with traffic.

Clogged up: The diversion routes were busy with traffic.
@TheMrsNatG Twitter.

On social media people complained of delays to their morning commute.

On Monday Peter Martin said on Twitter: “London Bridge already packed with vehicles at 7.15 this morning. It’s going to be chaos by 8.30.”

One person took to Twitter to say: “I can’t live like this for the next 2 months”.

London cabbies also complained on social media of the disruption they would face from the closure, complaining the problem is worsened by lane closures on other bridges.

Guiseppe Gonzalez, who passed Tower Bridge on his morning run, said police were stationed at both ends of the bridge checking cyclists were dismounting before crossing the bridge.

A spokesman for Transport for London said traffic on the diversion routes was busy but flowing.

More than 40,000 vehicles and pedestrians cross the 122-year-old bridge daily.

Northbound traffic will be diverted over London Bridge and Southwark Bridge will take southbound traffic.

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