Wandsworth Council has announced that roadworks will be returning to Putney Bridge and High Street later this month and into March, just months after the previous set caused widespread disruption and fury.
The council will be carrying out resurfacing from 24 February to 4 March in the same areas where the road was recently torn up to install new bike lanes and traffic islands. Once that is complete, the council says it will introduce new monitoring equipment that will allow Transport for London (TfL) to “remotely optimise” traffic flows.
But it means another two weeks of terrible traffic for locals as roads are closed off one section at a time and traffic is diverted around them. This time, side roads next to the resurfacing will also be affected, with some closed for the duration, parking bays suspended and turning spaces added for those unable to get onto Upper and Lower Richmond Roads and Putney Bridge Road from their homes.
The works are yet another blow for residents of Thamesfield who have already dealt with years of heavy traffic thanks to the closure of Hammersmith Bridge, and its failure to reopen thanks to political infighting over who will pick up the cost of renovations.
Last month, at a Labour Party event where Putney MP Fleur Anderson as well as the head of Wandsworth Council, Wandsworth’s London Assembly representative, and the council’s cabinet member for transport again sought to assure voters that they were working to get the bridge open, locals were in an unforgiving mood.
Transport cabinet member Jenny Yates was heckled when she claimed the previous roadworks had been carefully designed to limit disruption – a claim the council has repeated again over these new roadworks – and faced calls to stop any and all roadworks in the area until Hammersmith Bridge was finally open. The others were also roundly criticised for “saying a lot and doing nothing” with one local describing the event as a “complete waste of everyone’s time.”
The new roadworks are unlikely to change the mood.
The roadworks in full
Mon 24 Feb: Putney Bridge & Lower Richmond Road junction
Tue 25 Feb: Lower Richmond Road & Putney Embankment
Wed 26 Feb: Putney High Street northbound (toward bridge)
Thu 27 Feb: Putney High Street southbound
Fri 28 Feb: Putney Bridge Road between Brewhouse Lane and Putney High Street
Mon 3 Mar: Putney High Street southbound
Tue 4 Mar: Traffic monitoring equipment installed
