Blackwall faces total truck ban
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by Patrick Hook • The Blackwall Tunnel could be closed to trucks unless there is a major reduction in the number of LGVs which are illegally carrying hazardous cargoes through it.
The Highways Agency director for London has already met the Assistant Commissioner of police responsible for London's road traffic law to discuss how the tunnel's byelaws can be enforced; one of the options being considered is a total ban on trucks.
This would be expensive for hauliers—they would have to choose between a 30-mile detour to cross the Thames at Dartford, or a tortuous journey through central London where there are weight restrictions on many bridges.
"We are concerned at the danger posed by a number of heavy goods vehicles passing through the tunnel carrying hazardous substances," says the Highways Agency. "The practice is prohibited by the tunnel byelaws and we have been looking at ways in which it could be stopped—including, if necessary, reducing the width of the opening to two metres."
The FTA says: "The prospect of diverting all LGVs from the tunnel is unacceptable to us. At the moment we are talking to the Highways Agency about improving the new signs which are highly misleading and have resulted in some vehicles taking the diversion which they did not have to, and others going through which should not have done. But to ban all LGVs is an appalling prospect."