Hammersmith Flyover and the Olympics!

[OdramaSwimLaden]

I overheard two suited oiks talking about / hatching the plan to use the Hammersmith flyover solely for Olympic traffic if both lanes weren't fixed in time for the Olympics this summer.

If it is fixed in time one of the two lanes on the Hammersmith flyover will be an Olympic lane only and there was talk of the benefits of using the M4 bus lane as an Olympic lane too.....

They we obviously quite senior council employees and I wanted to buy them both a large Latte and throw it in their faces. fking s.....!!

[Tallbut Buxomly]

You seem surprised? You didnt actually think the olympics wasnt going to be turned into a soviet style we are better than you roads class system fking up the entirety of london for the duration of the games did you?

I have been sorely tempted to buy a snotter or two not register them in my name etc and then simply abandon them in an olympic lane.

It would cause chaos as the police wouldnt simply remove it as they will assume its some sort of threat causing delays to all those people who are more important than anyone else.

[anonymous-user]

Forget the BMW's, they'll be needing a few of these:

[b0rk]

Both lanes won't be fixed properly by june next year let alone 2012 as the bridge is ed.

I'd estimate three to five years to implement a fully effective fix, shortcutting by permanent lane closure or weight restrictions could reduce this however.

[0a]

I've lived in London for the last 6 years and will be out of our capital for the duration of the olympics drinking beer and watching the festivities. Sounds fair enough to me

[soad]

b0rk said:

Both lanes won't be fixed properly by june next year let alone 2012 as the bridge is ed.

Agreed. I wouldn't bet against that.

[XJSJohn]

As someone dragged up in London (a 'Ammersmiff boy at that ...) now living in self imposed exile, i cannot imagine the traffic hell that having the flyover closed is / will cause!!!

I remember how fked up everything was when they closed just one lane of the A40 flyovers about 15 years ago!!

[Orbin]

Tallbut Buxomly said:

You seem surprised? You didnt actually think the olympics wasnt going to be turned into a soviet style we are better than you roads class system fking up the entirety of london for the duration of the games did you?

you seem to have been reading the daily mail a little bit too much.

the biggest user of the lanes will be the athletes getting between venues.

[Gazzas86]

I was in Bo Street market (less than 2m from the olympic site) last weekend as the missus wanted some new treds, got chatting to the guys on the stalls and they said theres no cars allowed within 2 Miles?? of the olympic park, and basically their buisness will be shut down for the duration. gutted for him!.

[Laurel Green]

Orbin said:

you seem to have been reading the daily mail a little bit too much.

the biggest user of the lanes will be the athletes getting between venues.

I think you'll find that athletes will be outweighed by sponsors,officials, media and others whom are needed for the smooth 'running' of the games.

[k-ink]

It's about time the Olympics was scaled back to the level of a school sports day. The wasted billions cannot be justified any longer.

[Chrisw666]

k-ink said:

It's about time the Olympics was scaled back to the level of a school sports day. The wasted billions cannot be justified any longer.

The country has a shed load of stadiums, big swimming pools, places to ride bikes, and to play all of the olympic sports. If they said it was the British Olympics then you could just use a mixture of existing venues, people from all over the country could get excited about events in their region and not have to fork out £100s to go to London to watch, the whole thing would cost less and foreign visitors would benefit the economy of the whole country instead of the economy of London (where most of them would start and end their trips anyway).

It isn't like we live in a huge country, people can and do commute from North to South daily for work and other things and it would have given the whole country a shot in the arm instead of simply improving a ste part of London.

[Orbin]

Laurel Green said:

I think you'll find that athletes will be outweighed by sponsors,officials, media and others whom are needed for the smooth 'running' of the games.

you would be wrong. i am working at london 2012 and the biggest user of the lanes is the athletes. next up is media which again i see as legitimate.

(the biggest user of the whole transport system is the workforce running the games, which runs at 150,000, but only a small number of those will use the olympic lanes)

[Dr Doofenshmirtz]

Gazzas86 said:

I was in Bo Street market (less than 2m from the olympic site) last weekend as the missus wanted some new treds, got chatting to the guys on the stalls and they said theres no cars allowed within 2 Miles?? of the olympic park, and basically their buisness will be shut down for the duration. gutted for him!.

Most of the market goers are local Londoners and tourists. If anything, their business should rocket I would have thought?

As for the flyover - I do wonder if they're just putting off the inevitable - rebuild the whole lot?
For those that don't know...the flyover was originally built with underfloor heating...but it never worked. So 40 years of winter gritting has meant that the iron reinforcement in the concrete has completely rusted away in places. How on earth can you fix that?