London’s Hammersmith Bridge is closed amid fears it could COLLAPSE
London’s Hammersmith Bridge is closed completely amid fears it could COLLAPSE: 133-year-old Thames crossing is completely sealed off and river traffic banned from passing underneath after heatwave widened cracks in ironwork
- West London suspension bridge suddenly closed to pedestrians at 5pm today
- It was previously closed ‘indefinitely’ to motorists last April when cracks found
- Boats are also banned from crossing underneath the Grade-II listed structure
By Faith Ridler For Mailonline
Published: 16:54 EDT, 13 August 2020 | Updated: 06:14 EDT, 14 August 2020
Hammersmith Bridge was closed to the public with little warning today after safety inspectors found cracks in the 133-year-old structure had worsened amid the recent heatwave.
The suspension bridge in west London was closed ‘indefinitely’ to motorists in April last year after ‘critical faults’ were detected in the ironwork.
Hammersmith and Fulham Council made the decision to shut the crossing to pedestrians and cyclists from 5pm today after a ‘sudden deterioration in key parts of the structure.’
Boats will also not be permitted to cross underneath the bridge until engineers are confident it is safe to reopen the Grade-II listed structure.
Walkways underneath the bridge near the River Thames are also closed.
Hammersmith Bridge was closed to the public with little warning today after safety inspectors found cracks in the 133-year-old structure had worsened amid the recent heatwave
The suspension bridge in west London (pictured) was closed ‘indefinitely’ to motorists last April after ‘critical faults’ were detected in the ironwork
A statement from Hammersmith and Fulham Council said: ‘Hammersmith Bridge is closed to pedestrians and river traffic from 5pm today (13 August) because of an increased risk to public safety due to a sudden deterioration in key parts of the suspension structure.
‘Specialist engineers have been undertaking 24/7 monitoring of the structural integrity of the bridge throughout using an extensive network of sensors on the 19th century structure.
‘The deterioration in the structure was exacerbated by the recent heatwave which caused cracks to significantly increase – despite measures taken to mitigate the heat.
The expansion of a crack in the ironwork is seen in April (left) and after the August heatwave (right)
Boats will also not be permitted to cross underneath the bridge until engineers are confident is is safe to reopen the Grade-II listed structure
The closure, which came into effect with little warning, means the nearest river crossing is almost two miles away at Barnes Bridge
How Hammersmith Bridge survived two IRA bombings before it cracked under the heat
Hammersmith Bridge has been targeted twice by the IRA as the paramilitary group tried to blow it up.
Terrorists from the Provisional IRA struck on April 24, 1996, as did the so-called Real IRA on June 1, 2000, but failed to destroy the landmark.
Yet the batterings caused significant damage to the west London site and left it weaker and with a reduced weight limit to this day.
Two powerful bombs were put beneath the bridge during the 1996 attack, but they failed to detonate properly.
There were two small explosions, but the main bomb – made up of 30 lb of Semtex which could have felled the entire bridge and was the largest Semtex bomb ever found in Britain – never came. The IRA gave a two telephone warnings, as it often did, and police found the bomb before it detonated.
Armed officers raided homes in Fulham and Essex and made arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
The IRA later released a statement saying: ‘The substantial explosive device, which unfortunately failed to detonate, at Hammersmith Bridge in London, was placed by one of our active service units.’
The 133-year-old bridge was shut for three years to undergo £3.5million in repairs, but had to be halted when it turned out the wrong steel was being used.
In 2000 terrorists from the splinter group the Real IRA – formed after the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998 – bombed the bridge at 4.30am.
But it again failed to cause significant damage and no one was injured or killed. Adrian Larkman, who lived near the bridge, was the first to call the emergency services.
He told the Guardian at the time: ‘I work nights and I was cooking when there was a loud bang. The windows of my house shook. I dialled 999 and I was apparently the first person to call.
‘I put my boots on and went outside five minutes later and there were already policemen there.
‘I asked what was going on and they said there had been an explosion on the south side of the bridge and they were checking whether there could be a second device.’
The current bridge was opened in 1887 after being designed by civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette, who also masterminded central London’s sewer network. The Prince of Wales, who later became Edward VII, oversaw its grand reopening.
The original bridge, opened in 1827, was the first suspension bridge across the Thames and designed by William Tierney Clark. But after 50 years it was no longer strong enough to support the flow of traffic crossing the river and had to be replaced.
‘The bridge will remain closed until the engineers are confident that it is safe to re-open to pedestrians and river traffic.
‘It means that pedestrians and cyclists must now cross the river elsewhere, while all river traffic under the bridge will also be stopped – including the pedestrian walkways under Hammersmith Bridge – while engineers examine the extent of the damage.’
The closure, which came into effect with little warning, means the nearest river crossing is almost two miles away at Barnes Bridge, the Evening Standard reports.
Councillor Stephen Cowan said: ‘Safety is the number one priority. I’m absolutely sure that we averted a catastrophe by closing this 19th century suspension bridge to motor vehicles last year.
‘We have some of the best engineers in the world working on this scheme. They advise we now face a similar dilemma.
‘I appreciate how inconvenient this will be to thousands of people on both sides of the river and I am sorry about that, but we must follow the engineers’ advice which is why the bridge will be closed with immediate effect today.
‘We will update everyone as soon as engineers have investigated the scale of the recent damage. I have instructed them to find a plan to safely reopen it as quickly as they can.’
Hammersmith Bridge, designed by civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette and opened in 1887, is made from cast iron and is one of two of its kind in the world.
Micro-fractures were discovered in the structure in 2014 when the council leader commissioned a structural integrity review of all aspects of the bridge’s suspension structure, which began in 2015.
‘The bridge had been badly maintained for many years. The structural integrity review quickly began to find decades of unchecked corrosion riddled throughout,’ Cllr Cowan said.
‘It found that important mechanisms on the bridge had seized up years earlier causing the suspension structure to cease to operate as it had been designed to – causing other problems elsewhere in the machinery.
‘Last year, using the latest technology, it discovered dangerous micro-fractures in the cast iron pedestals that hold the suspension structure in place.’
‘These unchecked structural failures compromised the flexibility of the suspension chains over previous years and caused the micro fractures.’
The suspension bridge was closed indefinitely to motorists in April last year after ‘critical faults’ were detected in the ironwork.
Hammersmith Bridge had been about to undergo a full refurbishment, which engineers estimated would cost £120million and take three years to complete.
Transport for London then provided £25 million for preparatory repair work.
The council said in February there had been ‘good progress’ on the refurbishments.
But this weekend, when temperatures soared as high as 96F (35.7C) in London, the suspension chains were affected by the heat and cracks in the ironwork expanded.
