‘Unpleasant’ Hammersmith flyover could be torn down and replaced with a tunnel

Plans are being drawn up to turn a west London flyover into a tunnel, which has been dominating the neighbourhood for over 60 years.

The imposing flyover – a relic of the car-centric culture of the 1960s – has been part of the Hammersmith landscape for years, running just yards from the River Thames and cutting the town centre in half.

Now the Hammersmith and Fulham council is planning to demolish the structure and built it underground in a bid to reduce pollution and noise and to have more land for redevelopment.

The area could look different in the coming years if the plan to tear down the concrete overpass goes ahead.

For years, the flyover has disconnected people from the river and ‘severely’ impacts the town centre, the council admitted.

The A4 would be diverted into the tunnel, which has been dubbed a ‘flyunder,’ to improve air quality in the borough as part of the 15-year Local Plan.

The council said in its draft proposal, which will be decided on Monday: ‘This innovative redesign of the local road systems will reduce congestion and noise, improve air quality, and reconnect pedestrians with the river, creating a more harmonious and vibrant environment.’

Previous cost estimates for a flyunder tunnel have put the price tag at about £1.5 billion.

But how did a central London borough like Hammersmith end up with the 2,000 ft flyover slicing it in half?

The idea for the flyover was born when designing for cars dominated urban planning across the UK.

Flyovers mushroomed in cities like Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds as private car ownership soared in post-war Britain.

Construction for the Hammersmith flyover began in early 1960 before it opened almost two years later on November 16, 1961.

The aim was to remove traffic out of the town centre.

However, it had the opposite impact as planners had envisioned, turning the town centre into a concrete jungle.

Along with cutting people off from the riverbank, it severed the ‘traditional Victoria street pattern and creating large amounts of traffic moving around
the Hammersmith Gyratory to get on and off the A4,’ the council said, adding the it has other impacts like pollution and noise that ‘make the area around it unpleasant.’

The flyover was built with some extravagant features like integrated heating cables to keep it free of ice and snow.

But when the borough council received the heating bill for the 1962-1963 winter – around £100,000 in today’s money – it reportedly decided to cut off the electricity.

The flyover caused more grey hairs in 2012 after the cables were corroded and weakened, forcing it to close for urgent maintenace works.

Johnson visited the site to reassure that it would reopen in time for the Olympics.

Some months later, it was revealed that the flyover could have been at a sudden risk of collapse before it closed for the repairs.

A TfL report, obtained by the BBC, detailed plans to install temporary structures under the flyover to ‘strengthen it and prevent the likelihood of a sudden collapse, however remote the possibility.’

This round of maintenance reportedly cost around £10 million, followed by further repairs in 2013 at the price of £60 million.

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