The design work for the Rotherhithe Tunnel refurbishment is finished, Transport for London (TfL) has said – but no repairs can go ahead because the transport agency does not have the money.
TfL is also ready to find contractors to carry out the £120 million repair project, which would mean the tunnel would be closed for about a year.
The cash-strapped transport agency, which has a billion-pound hole in its budget largely because of fares lost in the Covid-19 pandemic, said that the tendering process is on hold until more money can be found for the project.
TfL boss Andy Byford said the agency was putting in a series of short-term fixes to keep the 114-year-old tunnel safe and useable until the main works can go ahead.
Putting off the works means the tunnel would cost more to maintain and run. The likelihood of closures will also increase year-on-year, as the operating systems become less reliable and more difficult to repair.
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It comes nearly a year after a senior TfL manager said last July that the tunnel was “in urgent need of an upgrade” and was the Thames crossing most in need of repair. “The Rotherhithe Tunnel was built many years ago for a different type of purpose,” Gareth Powell, managing director for surface transport, told the London Assembly.
“That is one of the reasons why there are restrictions around the type of vehicle that can enter and go through that tunnel at the moment. That’s in order that we can continue to operate the tunnel safely.”
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Only vehicles less than two metres high and wide and weighing below two tonnes are allowed to drive through the tunnel. Since December 2019 drivers are not limited to one fine per day for breaking this rule. TfL says drivers whose vehicles don’t meet these standards should cross the river at Tower Bridge or the Blackwall Tunnel.
Drivers paid out some £5 million in fines for taking the wrong kinds of vehicles through the Rotherhithe Tunnel in the first eight months of 2021 alone.
