The Council is now ready to start Phase 1 of its plan to make major highway improvements to the Clapham Junction Town Centre. The aim is to reduce accidents and improve conditions for all road user, particularly pedestrians. This is to be achieved by changing traffic flows through the town centre and upgrading the general street scene and environment with the use of very high quality materials.
The scheme comprises changes to the junctions of Lavender Hill/Falcon Lane (this will include a diagonal crossing to make it easier for pedestrians to get across the junction between the Falcon Pub and Debenhams Department Store) and the main crossroads at St John’s Hill/St John’s Road/Lavender Hill/Falcon Road (introduction of a right turn into Falcon Lane from Lavender Hill. This will include a banned right turn from Lavender Hill onto Falcon Road), coupled with replacement of the street furniture and fabric throughout.
The scheme was estimated to cost £3m (in the report to the Committee), including £800k coming from TfL money and allocated by the Council to the Junction. However the recent article published in Brightside in January talk about £1.2m (click on the article to see bigger).
For more details about the scheme, you can read the article we published last February with details on the different improvement for the streets and the transport.
In March 2009 we also received an email from Cllr Guy Senior talking about roadwoark and possible disruptions:
It is the intention to construct it without having any general traffic diversions. However, there would have to be some temporary measures to allow vehicles in and out of the site and relocation of bus stops etc. This is just what happened when the site was last rebuilt in the late 1980s.
According to the information distributed by the Council, Phase 1 of the works will be starting on 4th october 2010 and includes:
- Street lighting installation
- New junction at Falcon Lane-Lavender Hill-Eccles Road
- Repaving anf re-engineering of Falcon Lane
- Utilities diversions
- New pedestrian crossing on Lavender Hill
The remainder of this large scheme will be implemented in subsequent phases (repaving and trees in Mossbury Road is not expected before 2012)
A plan of the proposed measures is shown below (click on the image to see bigger).
For any questions you can contact:
Sam Emmett
Tel: 020 8871 8209
email: semmett@wandsworth.gov.uk
Read also: Clapham Junction Exemplar Streetscape plan – is it good enough?
Exemplary? Use of the word by the Council to describe the scheme to replace one that was so evidently wrongly conceived and badly detailed in the 1980s amounts to gross over hype of a project that just tinkers with local issues when the big picture has so evidently been abandoned. How long will this one last one wonders and when will the next scheme come along to cost future taxpayers a fortune and keep armies of functionaries busy and at the same time lining their generous pension pots?
Some of the things in the scheme may allow a slight improvement, but really it could be oh so much better. Opportunities have been lost or put on very long hold.
David>What sort of improvements do you suggest? What Other alternatives/opportunities are you talking about?