Bermondsey Street Tunnel

Does anyone know how long the tunnel is closed for? The pedestrian detour is not nice walking on your own at night.

2 weeks I think it says at the top by the climbing place.. will check when I am next there.

I thought it said 2 months............

yip two months is what i read...
2 months!!! do you think they'll actually do any work? or just use if for storage like they seem to do at most of the other road works around here... like the one one bermondsey street where they suspended the parking until 24th may which are still out of use!!

I was told 2-3 weeks for pedestrians (a week ago). Hopefully the 2 months is for cars?

Seems like they are using the top end of the tunnel for storage now. Why not move to one side of the road and open for pedestrians? Arrgggg

And what's happening with the clean up anyway? They did clean one half of the tunnel months ago, didn't finish that half anyway, and then stopped altogether?

Cleaning was underway when I passed by this morning.

Had a look last night, and incredibly, it seems they are mounting a coordinated effort to clean the roof of the tunnel, tidy up the piping along the walls and dig up and replace old pipes uner the road. Surely the latter should be done a couple of weeks after the first lot have pulled out? :-)

Just off the phone with the ever helpful Southwark Regeneration team who are leading the project. Positive progress =

Works commenced on site in December 2008 and they have now cleaned the bricks on the eastern and western side of the tunnel, leaving the area of bridge over the centre of the road. Night-working was initiated in March to complete this section without needing to close the road during the day. Unfortunately the works were too loud and complaints from residents were received necessitating suspension of the works.

Works recommenced on site in June 2009 during a road closure as part of the Thames Water mains replacement programme. Once Thames Water have replaced the water main, Southwark's contractors FM Conway will follow behind to clean the rest of the tunnel. If this should not eventuate for any reason, Southwark have designed a solution to deliver night-working with a noise barrier at the southern mouth of the tunnel They hope to avoid doing this to save on project budget, but have this option should the Thames Water programme be substantially delayed.

The tunnel cleaning works will take an estimated 6 weeks to complete up until the end of July, after which time Southwark lighting engineers will begin replacing the light fittings within the tunnel, and erect a new colourful feature lighting system on the northern facade of the bridge.

All works are estimated to complete September 2009.
Relevant Southwark web-page.

Shane Clarke
Team London Bridge