Silvertown Tunnel opening brought forward
26 February 2024The opening of London’s Silvertown Tunnel has been brought forward, a year after it was announced the programme had been pushed back.
A report to be presented to Transport for London’s (TfL) Programmes and Investment Committee tomorrow says that following “a series of programme mitigations”, the permit-to-use date has improved and is now planned for Quarter 4 2024/2025. In February last year the committee was told the opening date had been pushed back from April to June 2025 because of shortages of skilled labour and materials supply problems.
Tomorrow’s meeting will also hear the Programme and Project Authority has increased by £2.7m to include scope for the provision of bus infrastructure.
“The estimated final cost is currently £4m over authority due to additional inflation assumptions being included for land purchase. The project team continue to look for ways to bring the EFC back in line,” the report says.
The new 1.4km twin-bore road tunnel under the Thames will be the first in London in more than 30 years. Tunnelling by an 11.91m Herrenknecht TBM – the largest ever used in the UK – was completed in August last year.
The contractor is Riverlinx CJV, a construction joint venture comprising Ferrovial Construction UK, BAM Nuttall and SK Ecoplant.
