The Croydon Flyover has been undergoing urgent checks by Transport for London engineers this week, with the capital-wide transport agency confirming that the 60-year-old concrete and steel urban motorway “is in need of refurbishment”.
Off-limits: the parking suspension signs earlier this week. The two-day closure was extended across the week
Parts of the Wandle Road surface car park, beneath the Flyover, have been closed this week while the surveying work has been undertaken.
The partial closure of the town centre car park was originally expected to last two days. In the end, the closures continued all week. TfL expects its investigation works to be completed today.
It is three years since TfL slated the Croydon Flyover as in need of refurbishment works to maintain and repair the rusting steel and crumbling concrete of the structure, which was built between 1965 and 1969.
It is a little more than a decade since urgent repair works were conducted on the Hammersmith Flyover in west London, which was built around the same time, using the same materials and methods as the Croydon Flyover, when falling lumps of masonry made that concrete structure unsafe to use.
The Hammersmith Flyover was closed in 2013 for a project that took two years and cost £100million.
The covid pandemic, and the millions squandered by London Mayor Boris Johnson, has left TfL with inadequate funds for capital works and maintenance on its major roads and infrastructure.
TfL has estimated that it needs to spend £2billion on its entire road network to prevent key road bridges and tunnels from shutting.
The six-lane Croydon Flyover carries the east-west A232 from alongside Fisher’s Folly and the Croydon Underpass in central Croydon and over Roman Way on to Duppas Hill Road. Built of reinforced concrete, it is used by 40,000 vehicles a day.
TfL said earlier this year that it hoped to start maintenance works on the Croydon Flyover in 2026.
According to a report in New Civil Engineer, “The deteriorating condition of TfL’s road structures has been a long time coming.
Danger list: how the Croydon Flyover featured in reports to the TfL board in 2022 as a road in urgent need of safety works
“Last year [2021], TfL meeting agenda papers revealed that the cost of patching up London’s surface transport assets has increased by 762% during the last five years. This includes all bridges and tunnels in the capital as well as River Thames crossings.
“TfL attributes this increase to delays and budget cuts to its surface transport assets renewal programme, which includes major repair work to at risk structures including the Rotherhithe Tunnel, A40 Westway, Vauxhall Bridge and Hammersmith Bridge.”
TfL’s most recent published proposals for the Croydon Flyover included carrying out concrete repairs, waterproofing, replacing expansion joints and fitting new lighting. The road way is often left dark for nighttime drivers due to the disrepair of its lighting system.
Design work for the repairs has been completed, leaving TfL waiting for funding.
Carl Eddleston, TfL’s director of streets and network operations, told Inside Croydon: “Safety is our top priority, and we regularly inspect and maintain TfL’s road network to ensure it is safe for people to use.
“We have implemented closures to Wandle Surface Car Park as part of our investigations to assess the condition of Croydon Flyover, which is in need of refurbishment.
“The final phase of the car park closure will be completed by November 7.”
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Knock it down
It’s a Death Trap. Highway’s authorities not going to do
Anything until someone innocent members of public
Dead. Croydon council has high wages bills to pay out
Mayor Perry alone over £85000 plus all bonuses for
Part times mayor’s.
It’s TfL’s road so nothing to do with Croydon Council wages bill or Mayor Perry. TfL have been well aware of the deteriorating state of the flyover for many years but have done very little. With reinforced concrete repairs, it is very much a case of “ a stitch in time saves nine”. Furthermore, with a structure like this, attention to joints and waterproofing is essential to prevent water ingress.
Nothing to do with Croydon council or part-time Perry. Or Neil Garratt, who is meant to be the London Assembly Member for Croydon and Sutton. Apart from slagging off Sadiq Khan and backing up the hopeless Susan Hall, he does bugger all. The Flyover’s Street lights have been out for years but nobody will fix them. Time this 70s American freeway was demolished
As the New Civil Engineer says, “The deteriorating condition of TfL’s road structures has been a long time coming.” Hammersmith Bridge was nearly 200 years old, when it was closed in 2019.
If Croydon Flyover is knocked down, as Arfur Towcrate suggests, the Wandle Road Surface car park might need to be closed for more than a week, and the then grid-locked Old Town roundabout might deteriorate faster.
For those interested in such things there’s an account of Croydon’s half-arsed attempt at a ring road here:
https://www.roads.org.uk/articles/croydon-ring-road
They actually started the investigation works last week and closed off 2 floors of the APCOA multi-storey park also on Wandle Road, they were looking at the supports inside for a few days. Of course, you would have to brave the run down smelly mess that is the APCOA car park to see this.
I suspect there will be a lot more congestion getting in and out of Croydon for a good many months if and when they do the works.
Talking of ageing concrete pollution blackspots in Croydon, how old is the Jubilee Bridge on the Roman Way “racetrack” and is there any sign of that falling down soon?
Is it about a decade younger than the Croydon flyover and opened for the Queen’s silver jubilee in 1977?