The committee at Rochester Cruising Club would like to express their appreciation for all the assistance being offered by TMYC at the moment TO RCC club members stranded on the Thames. We have 4 boats the "wrong" side of the bridge moored at Hampton court.
Message from ATYC..............
IMPORTANT - Please ensure this information is circulated to your members as soon as possible.
Hammersmith Bridge - Information received from Hammersmith & Fulham Council:
Hammersmith Bridge is closed to pedestrians and cyclists as well as to river traffic as it is unsafe for people to be underneath it. On Thursday 13 August 2020, specialist engineers concluded that the fractures they had been continuously monitoring in critical parts of the 19th Century suspension bridge structure had become a serious threat to public safety. The fractures had significantly increased in size due to the recent heatwave despite the range of measures they had taken to halt that from happening.
The Council’s engineering consultants have highlighted any passage under or over the bridge is unsafe as the bridge is in a vulnerable condition for navigational channels as well as highway use.
The navigational channels on either side of the bridge could be closed for at least 6 weeks. We are making every effort to find a solution to stabilise the bridge as quickly as possible.
We are also in discussions with PLA and our consultants to establish if a one-off passage under the bridge is possible and if a safe passage can be accommodate PLA will be policing any such passage using the traffic control team. Currently we are in discussion with PLA and our consultants developing a procedure for controlled safe one off passage under the bridge. Please note in view of the condition of the bridge, the one-off passage can be aborted just before transition under the bridge takes place as we are relying on data from monitoring equipment and if the sensors are triggered on the day of passage the operation will be aborted.
You will be notified of any one-off controlled passage and in the meanwhile a log of stranded vehicles is being collected and I would appreciate of you could provide the following information held to inform PLA about your vessel to assess the manner of passage under the bridge in a safe way.
Vessel Name
Length
Beam
Draught
Air Draft
Contact details of the Master
Where are they coming from and going to?
How long it will take to reach Hammersmith Bridge
Yours sincerely
Anvar Alizadeh
Highway Structure’s Manager
Email: anvar.alizadeh@lbhf.gov.uk
Transport and Highways
Hammersmith & Fulham Council
Tel. 020 87533303
Mobile 07968859310
I was told today that someone had booked passage under Hammersmith bridge for Putney from the non tidal Thames.
Don't know any more details but I guess there is going to be a group of vessels undertaking the transit on a cool, calm, dry and not too sunny day in the near future.
Bumped into a couple of Chatham berth holders on Tedd footbridge while running earlier, they are heading down in the morning. Chatting to a couple of rowers too they were a bit miffed that they were not told this was happening, going to make wash... I told them that once you are all gone you won't be coming back for quite some time!
in view of the nature of the structural problems and the time involved in instigating a full survey and the fact that the bridge is not exactly a vital structure except to those in the locality ......do not hold your breath ?
Personally would not be devastated if they demolished and rebuilt it .....lets say about 4 metres higher.