Plan to ease London flow
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• by Tim Maughan Hauiage firms which operate through East London can look forward to smoother journeys if a £500m scheme goes ahead to build two Thames crossings.
London's business community has urged Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott to hasten the project along after feasibility studies carried out by investment banks ING Barings and Morgan Stanley showed that a new road and rail tunnel could be successfully financed by the private sector.
Such mutes—which could be paid for by tolls—would dramatically improve the lorry driver's lot: a 17-tonne limit is in force on Tower Bridge: and the Blackwell Tunnel is not suitable for the largest trucks.
Plans have yet to be finalised, but if the project gets the green light a new tunnel may be built next to the existing Blackwell Tunnel that would be able to accommodate HGVs. A rail tunnel could also be built.
The business organisation London First, which commissioned the two investment banks to look into the scheme,
says that new Thames links are crucial. Irving WI, London First's director of transport and planning, says: "The existing northbound lane in the Blackwell Tunnel is over a 100 years old; there is a problem for highsided vehicles. Trucks have to use either the Woolwich ferry or London Bridge—these are big limitations on HGVs. This scheme would benefit the hauliers."
According to London First, private money would pay for the project with little or no cash coming from the taxpayer.