A4 Roadworks to Be Suspended Due to Queen's Funeral
Move made to avoid delays to cortege as it travels to Windsor Castle
Traffic queueing on the approach to Hogarth Roundabout. Picture: TfL
Transport for London has taken the decision to suspend roadworks on the A4 in Chiswick for a week in preparation for the state funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Work to repair the Cromwell Road railway bridge is to be paused from Friday 16 September to Saturday 24 September and all lane restrictions are to be temporarily removed. Work is expected to resume on Sunday 25 September
There will be a full closure of the A4 westbound overnight between Chiswick Roundabout and Hogarth Roundabout from 10pm on Thursday 15 September until 3:00am the next day to allow the road to be cleared.
The pavement on the westbound side of the road – between Harvard Hill and Oxford Road South – will reopen as planned on Friday 16 September. Signed diversion routes via the subway at Harvard Hill and the underpass on Wellesley Road will remain in place until then.
On the day of funeral on Monday 19 September the cortege would need to travel through Chiswick, past the point of the roadworks, on its way to Windsor Castle after leaving Westminster Abbey. There are currently substantial delays at this point due to the road being reduced to a single carriageway near the junction with Sutton Court Road.
There have been concerns expressed about visiting royalty from other nations and heads of state, being stuck in traffic on their way from Heathrow prior to the funeral. Warnings about the opportunity high-value targets being static in congestion presents to terrorists have been made.
The roadworks were due to enter a particularly disruptive phase with a lane reduction on the eastbound carriageway starting on 17 September while the restrictions on the westbound carriageway continued.
TfL is currently working on an updated programme to remove and reinstate the works but it is possible that the closures may now need to continue into next year.
Cllr Peter Thompson, leader of the Conservative group on Hounslow Council said, "This sensible move from TfL is expected and very welcome. The eyes of the world will be on London in the days ahead and more people than usual will be travelling to London to pay their respects to our late Queen. We need all our major roads to be open to make their journeys as smooth as possible."
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We’ve always done that and won’t be changing, in fact we’d like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we’d be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you’d like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |
September 14, 2022
