Sir Sadiq Khan has said Londoners should be “incredibly proud” of the soon-to-open Silvertown Tunnel, dubbing it a “great piece of infrastructure” which will “transform” lives.
The new £2.2bn road tunnel under the Thames, which will link Silvertown with the Greenwich Peninsula, is due to open on April 7, with the mayor saying he “hopes” to attend its launch.
The tunnel has been heavily criticised by environmental campaigners who argue it will have the opposite of its intended effect of improving congestion and air quality, and will in fact only encourage more car use.
The £4 peak-time toll to use the tunnel, and the fact that the neighbouring Blackwall Tunnel will have a toll for the first time in its 128-year history, has also attracted anger – with more than 45,000 people having now signed a petition calling for the charges to be scrapped.
Asked whether he will attend the tunnel’s opening in just under three months’ time, Sir Sadiq said: “Well, I hope so. What this tunnel will do is it will transform life for those in south-east London and those in east London who’ve experienced, for years now, record congestion, poor air quality, [and an] impact on productivity.
“What this tunnel is doing is it’s self-financing, with those that use [pay] the toll. It will not only improve air quality, improve congestion, alleviate pressures, but also have a lane reserved for double-decker buses, taking people across the river, but also cyclists as well.”
Asked if he was excited about the tunnel’s opening, despite the significant controversy it has attracted, he said: “It’s a great piece of infrastructure. We should be incredibly proud.
“[It was] built under budget, in record time and will revolutionise travel in that part of London.”
The mayor’s claim that the tunnel has been built “under budget” would appear to contradict papers published by Transport for London’s (TfL) programmes and investment committee in October last year.
The vast majority of the scheme is being privately financed by Riverlinx, the company which has been building the tunnel and will maintain and operate it. But TfL is also facing some “direct costs” of its own in bringing the project to life, according to the October committee papers – with an ‘estimated final cost’ to TfL of £187.7m. The papers state that this is some £10.1m over a previous estimate of £177.6m. A December update said however that the final cost to TfL “has the potential to reduce as the end of construction in 2025 approaches”.
Sir Sadiq’s claim that the scheme has been delivered “in record time” is also arguable. The April opening date is indeed slightly sooner than the ‘summer 2025’ timeframe TfL had been citing last year. But when the project was initially consulted on by the then-mayor Boris Johnson back in 2012, TfL had said the tunnel could be in place by 2021.
A map of the Silvertown Tunnel route (TfL)
Campaigners opposed to the tunnel’s construction have said it will increase traffic, congestion, pollution and carbon emissions, and point to TfL modelling that suggests that about 100,000 motorists a day will continue to use the Blackwall tunnel – and 15,000 to 30,000 a day will use the new Silvertown Tunnel.
TfL maintains that the project will “help to reduce congestion at the Blackwall Tunnel, deliver faster journeys during peak times, help manage overall air quality and allow for better cross-river public transport”.