Garden Bridge across the River Thames

Garden Bridge across the River Thames

Pedestrian Crossing in London, England, UK: News – design by Thomas Heatherwick

14 Feb 2017

London Garden Bridge – Case Weaker

London garden bridge case weaker now than in 2014, says Treasury official, reports The Guardian.

Letter to public accounts committee chair appears to signal ebbing of government support for controversial Thames project.

Signalling that government support for the controversial project may be in decline, a letter from the Treasury’s top civil servant said the overall case for supporting it even in 2014 was “finely balanced and subject to an unusually high level of uncertainty”.

Writing to Meg Hillier, the Labour MP who chairs the influential public accounts committee (PAC), Tom Scholar said the Garden Bridge Trust, which is behind the project, had yet to finalise planning consents, faced a continued funding shortfall and had already spent £22.5m of public money on pre-construction work.

Article in The Guardian: London Garden Bridge Government Support

8 Feb 2017

London Garden Bridge Maintenance Cost Guarantee

All-party pressure on London Mayor not to sign guarantee:

Members of the London Assembly have backed a motion by 16 votes to one calling on London Mayor Sadiq Khan not to sign a guarantee to meet the maintenance cost of the Garden Bridge in the event that private fundraising falls short, reports the SE1 website.

A motion was tabled by Labour’s Tom Copley and Florence Eshalomi designed to put pressure on the Mayor of London to withhold his signature from the vital guarantee required before building work on the controversial bridge could begin.

At a London Assembly plenary meeting, members of all parties represented at City Hall (Labour, Green, UKIP and Liberal Democrat) spoke in support of the motion and against the Garden Bridge project, except the Conservative member.

Tom Copley argued that the bridge was the product of “cocktail-party cronyism” and questioned the amount of public money already spent on the bridge before construction work has begun.

Liberal Democrat Caroline Pidgeon said that it was “far-fetched” to believe that the Garden Bridge Trust would be able to raise the estimated £3 million a year for maintenance without recourse to public funds.

source: http://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/9068

11 Jan 2017

Garden Bridge Funding Problem

Garden Bridge to ask for public’s help to plug funding gap as charity behind it admits it has no idea how much the final bill will be, reports Building Design today.

Article in BD: London Garden Bridge Funding Problem

11 Jan 2017

Garden Bridge Land Deal

Garden Bridge land deal faces further scrutiny, reports the Architects’ Journal today.

The acquisition of land on both banks of the Thames required for building the Garden Bridge is now in doubt after Westminster City Council announced it is to reassess its approval for the necessary property transactions on the north bank.

Article in AJ: London Garden Bridge Land Deal

26 Aug 2016

Garden Bridge Financial Guarantee
The UK government has cut its underwriting of the Garden Bridge by £6 million, reports Building Design.

UK Transport Secretary Chris Grayling announced today that while he would extend the financial guarantee for an unlimited time period, it would be cut to £9 million.
The current guarantee, which covers up to £15 million of cancellation liabilities, expires in September and the Garden Bridge Trust had asked for a year’s extension.

Article in BD: London Garden Bridge Financial Guarantee

5 Aug 2016

London Garden Bridge Marine Engineer Warning

A marine engineering specialist has warned that building the Garden Bridge across the Thames at the same time as the super sewer would be an “unnecessary and reckless risk”.

Tim Beckett, founder of global marine civil engineering consultancy Beckett Rankine, said the unprecedented volume of river traffic would increase the chances of a disaster like the Marchioness tragedy (in which 51 people drowned in 1989 after a fatal collision between two rivercraft).

He said the schedules of both projects had shifted, resulting in a “clear and apparent clash” at Blackfriars, the part of the River Thames which already has the greatest number of collisions.

He advised the most effective risk mitigation measure is to delay the Garden Bridge construction until the peak of the super sewer river traffic (the Thames Tideway Tunnel or TTT) has passed in 2018.

20 Jul 2016

London Garden Bridge Concept at Blackfriars

British architect Crispin Wride has released his own concept for a Garden Bridge in London, which he claims is more cost-efficient than Thomas Heatherwick’s proposal and more imaginative then the alternative suggested by Allies and Morrison, reports Dezeen.

Titled the Blackfriars Garden Islands Bridge, the design by Crispin Wride Architects Design Studio Ltd uses the redundant piers beside Blackfriars Bridge to create a series of four leaf-shaped platforms across the River Thames, each containing its own garden.

The platforms are located between the existing road bridge and railway bridge, which lie quite close to each other.

photo © Adrian Welch

Previously this site had a concept design proposal by British architect Will Alsop. Alsop and Stormer’s design for a new Thameslink 2000 station at Blackfriars:

Blackfriars Bridge Concept in London

The London architecture studio was founded in 2010. Crispin Wride Architectural Design Studio, part of consultant Gibb, won a competition back in 1998 to design a 1M pedestrian footbridge across a 15m section of Loch Lomond in Scotland.

Article on Dezeen website: London Garden Bridge Debate

11 Jul 2016

London Garden Bridge Preparatory Work Stopped

The future of London’s proposed garden bridge has been called into further question after the city’s new mayor, Sadiq Khan, halted preparatory work on the structure over fears this could involve more public money being spent, reports The Guardian.

Sadiq Khan officially backs the plan for the 367-m long bridge, but only on the condition that no more public funding is made available for its construction. Until now £60m of public money has been committed to the £175m structure.

Part of the initial work has involved London Underground strengthening the structure of Temple underground station by the River Thames so the north end of the bridge could sit on top of it. Transport for London’s (TfL) finance and policy committee had been due on Friday to formally approve £3m in extra spending on this, but Sadiq Khan has ordered a halt so the funding can be examined by the committee, according to the Architects’ Journal.

It comes just over a week after the National Audit Office announced it was investigating another element of the public funding for the bridge – the £30m of £60m given by the Department for Transport. Separately, the Charity Commission is looking into the spending of the Garden Bridge Trust, which is behind the project.

This vain-glorious project is so tainted it would be better to call it a day. It is not desperately needed and London already has had a disproportionate share of infrastructure spending when analysed nationally.

3 + 2 Jul 2016

Alternative London Garden Bridge Proposal

Thames Central Open Spaces (TCOS) attended The State of London debate (1 Jul 2016) chaired by LBC’s James O’Brien and “asked the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, to justify supporting the Garden Bridge given £37.7 million of taxpayers’ money has allegedly been spent on it with very little to show for it.”

Sadiq Khan tried to bluff his way through but “supporters wouldn’t let him off the hook accusing him of throwing away good money after bad. The audience was unanimous in shouting out “yes!” to Sadiq’s question of whether or not to cut our losses and scrap the bridge.”

Article on TCOS wbesite: London Garden Bridge Debate

Thames Central Open Spaces was created in 2014 by a group of stakeholders with the shared goal of protecting open space along the River Thames and the South Bank in London.

15 Jun 2016

Alternative London Garden Bridge Proposal

Allies & Morrison Architects, based in Southwark near the site of this bridge, has proposed a cut-price version of the Garden Bridge – simply by planting trees on an existing road bridge, reports Building Design today.

The architecture practice suggests reconfiguring Blackfriars Bridge so that traffic takes up just half the width, leaving 3,700sqm for flower beds, trees and footpaths.

Artur Carulla, a partner at Allies & Morrison, said the idea would cost a fraction of the £175 million Garden Bridge – because it does not involve building an actual bridge.

http://www.e-architect.co.uk/london/garden-bridge-across-the-river-thames

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