Hammersmith Bridge

I think that was the only one that was open.

Or you have to go all the way West London to Hammersmith Bridge when that was open.

But I'm in central and I didn't know they were shut.

So I'm trying to go to Victoria Bridge and London Bridge and all of the other bridges.

And every time I've gone there, I couldn't get through.

So I ended up going all the way, I think, to Hammersmith Bridge.

Yeah, I did, because I had to go down Fulham area.

And then I think football was on as well.

It still hasn't happened.

What sort of a country and city are we that Hammersmith Bridge has been closed for how many years? A major artery in London, which the prime minister of the day drives past on the way to the airport and has been closed and nobody sorts it out.

This is really not accepted.

It doesn't show a good face to the country, to the whole world, where we should be respected for being ahead of things, not behind things.

Thank you.

Um, I wonder whether the public only notices, uh, infrastructure, uh, when something fails, when something goes wrong, and I wonder if like examples like Hammersmith Bridge, uh, i-in West London, whether, whether they ...

Would, would there perhaps a different cause f-for its failure, but whether, whether these are isolated or whether they're a kind of a warning sign of a, a much larger trend.

Mm.

Um, you know, of course, for Hammersmith, um, Bridge, um, uh, you know, what happened was that that structure was closed for a period, um, and then, and then reopened to cyclists and pedestrians, but not to, to vehicles.

Um, the important point there is that it's highly disruptive.

You know, so, so Hammersmith Bridge in that, in that situation was serving as part of a really important transportation network, a really important transportation system.

And, and when you, when you have to weight restrict or close a, a bridge, then it has really significant consequences for people.

And this is a fun one this week because I know we've got a lot of transport nerds listening.

So I thought, well, let's talk about the problem of Hammersmith Bridge because I've been talking to Nick Maney, who's got a novel solution to how we can solve the problem of this bridge being closed.

So I'm delighted to be joined now by Nick Maney, a local resident and a campaigner around Hammersmith Bridge.

Nick, thank you for joining us.

Before we get in to what you want to build and what you want to do, because it's very exciting, let's talk about the problem you're trying to solve.

So you're down in Hammersmith and there's a bridge there, Hammersmith Bridge in West London.

It's a beautiful old bridge, but weirdly it's been closed since 2019.

So what the hell's been going on?