| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Hammersmith Bridge’s ‘autonomous pods’ | |
| Posted by: | Michael Robinson | |
| Date/Time: | 23/07/26 13:14:00 |
| Of course a tunnel will need approach roads which will need to be of sufficient length and acceptable gradient (max 5%?) to take the road below the river bed with sufficient headroom for the types of vehicles allowed in the tunnel. An approach road for a tunnel allowing coaches/HGVs will be longer than one for just cars. If the Blackwall tunnel can be used an example, the approach road starts descending about 500m from the river. In Hammersmith, that would put the tunnel portal trench in the middle of the gyratory. So goodbye Broadway shopping centre, offices and bus station. But oops, the District and Piccadilly lines are there so the tunnel approach road would need to get below these as well. What about digging up Brook Green or Shepherds Bush Green for the tunnel entrance? Or the approach road could go parallel to the river with a sharp turn to get under the the river. I assume digging up Furnival Gardens would be seen as unacceptable so maybe they could allocate half of the space of the A4 for the tunnel and the other half for traffic going into and out of London. Although given traffic going into and out of London was about 4x traffic using the bridge, people going into and out of London may think they are getting a raw deal. Unless of course you had alternative suggestions for the routing of the approach road and location of the tunnel portal trench? |