Bellenden Road gridlock - bridge replacement

[ed_pete]

Total gridlock this evening (wasn't great this morning), from Burger King/Lidl right back along Bellenden/Highshore/Lyndhurst in both directions because Bellenden is completely closed between Holly Grove (Ganapati corner) and Blenheim Grove due to railway bridge replacement. Sign says its going until early June. Avoid if you can.

[tomskip]

My husband sent a text from Peckham at 17.52 to say the traffic is a nightmare. He's still not home at 19.15!

[intexasatthe moment]

The nos 12 buses were in a pickle earlier this evening - it took 3 seperate 12s to travel from Lidls to beyond Nigel Rd as all 3 had their destinations changed and curtailed .

Plus lots of police activity .

[DulwichFox]

I got caught up in it this morning. Absolute nightmare.

Took me an hour from B&Q Old Kent to East Dulwich.

Normally go through Pomroy St but got caught up on Nunhead lane closures last time so

thought I'd take Peckham Bellenden Rd option. Big mistake.

Foxy

[cosmonaut]

This came out of nowhere to me (and to a lot of other people, apparently). No leaflets about it or anything. What's the plan for rerouting traffic while this happens? I didn't see any redirection signs anywhere, just lots of drivers stuck in endless queues and perplexed cyclists.

[twinhunters]

Took me 45 mins to get home from bushy hill road to oglander nightmare , traffic

Coming down lynhurst is being sent on a loop,

As you can't turn onto bellenden you get sent back onto Peckham road .

This is apparently for a month ( that prob means 2 months )Really bad planning :(

[rendelharris]

cosmonaut Wrote:

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> This came out of nowhere to me (and to a lot of

> other people, apparently). No leaflets about it or

> anything.

Nothing I can see on Southwark's website for road closures, and I haven't see any of the usual lamppost signs - perhaps it's an emergency?

[maria24]

I live I Bellenden road and I did

get a card put through my door a few

Months ago

[intexasatthe moment]

I noticed a sign at the junction of Bellenden and Peckham Rd ,near Lidls ,last week .

But I'm guessing this wouldn't have been seen by people using Lyndhurst Grove /Lyndhurst Way to join Bellenden Rd further south by Ganapati .

So possibly poor signage rather than unplanned works ?

Certainly caused major problems on Peckham Rd .

[Huggers]

My garage-south London clutch- told me about this. They believed the traffic flow would be made two way for the duration. It's a months planned work. Ridiculous there aren't proper diversions in place for this.

[Louisa]

A trip to Kings yesterday via what I assumed would be a easy stop off at Lidl Peckham, resulted in over 1 hour and 30 minutes in delays.

Best thing you can do if coming from Camberwell is to go back up Denmark Hill past the Fox on the Hill and then a left down towards the village. I feel sorry for people who live on the likes of Highshore RD who have no choice but to join the chaos to get out.

Louisa.

[Mumofone]

This is causing chaos.

I live near there and received notification about this but it was my understanding that the works were only going to be completed at night. They made mention to noise implications regarding this.

Currently the only diversion is for traffic to go back down Bellenden road by Lidl and through the traffic lights which only let about one car through at a time onto Peckham road. Obviously they can't go round to camberwell grove as that bridge is still closed. So there is currently a massive queue to get anywhere and peckham road is gridlocked.

I've just seen a car drive fairly agrresively the wrong way round the one way system and onto the blind corner of chadwick road.

Is there anything that can be done about this? It seems like particularly poor planning.

[SpringTime]

Yep, if this isn't due to an emergency it certainly is dreadful planning. Seems to me that you won't find out (at least without modern tech) that there's a closure until you become part of the related jams. Would've been good to get Camberwell Grove open before this started surely...?

[Renata Hamvas]

These are works being done by Network Rail who have been responsible for organising the closure. The Rye Lane Councillors and Cabinet member have had several complaints and they have contacted officers who are liaising with Network Rail so that they find a less disruptive set up.

Renata

[edcam]

Agree Springtime madness to do this while CG still closed.

[Mumofone]

Thanks Renata,

Wasn?t it meant to be nighttime works only though? Or am I imagining that.

[kford]

This is how to do it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX7pL59BLeg

[toffeese15]

SpringTime Wrote:

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> Yep, if this isn't due to an emergency Would've been good to get

> Camberwell Grove open before this started

> surely...?

You'd think. We have been leafleted about tha Camberwell Grove work being done later in the summer. Why they couldn't have done that first before doing the work on Bellenden Road is beyond me. They have created a bottleneck with only one exit. The level of incompetence involved in the planning of this is quite staggering.

[fishbiscuits]

tomskip Wrote:

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> My husband sent a text from Peckham at 17.52 to

> say the traffic is a nightmare. He's still not home at 19.15!

I will have to remember that one!

[kford]

Southwark camera spy car parked on upper Lyndhurst this morning, presumably to catch drivers going back against the one way system.

[tiddles]

Of course !! Make life as difficult as possible and try and catch people out. Well done southwark council

They need to rearrange some one ways into two ways to make navigating that area possible. With the double whammy

Of camberwell grove shut the diversions are mind boggling. But i suspect that s half the satisfaction for the council.

[flocker spotter]

Public transport work is usually for the greater benefit of society. a little disruption may inconvenience the average driver for a short period, but this isn't the end of the world is it ?

[Mumofone]

Well seeing as it?s disrupting the p13 route too then everyone, not just drivers are affected.

[SpringTime]

Continuing roadworks on Grove Lane whilst all this goes on of course. Great fun!

[rupert james]

This may be of interest, a reply received regarding the Bellenden Road Closure. People may know different.

RE: Bellenden Road Bridge Replacement

CR South East

Today, 16:01

You

Dear Mr Jones

Southwark Council has forwarded a number of complaints to Network Rail over recent days and the following message is designed to respond to those concerns raised with regard to the essential bridge replacement that is taking place on Bellenden Road, which is to replace a life expired bridge to allow the continuation of the train service in this area and to carry out improvement works to the Camberwell Grove bridge to open the bridge to traffic under 3 tonnes. Firstly, we would like to apologise for any inconvenience and disruption that these improvement works may be causing you. Network Rail and Southwark Council have been working closely together to try and mitigate and minimise as much disruption as possible, but due to the nature of the works there will regrettably be some disruption.

Network Rail and Southwark Council have to maintain their infrastructure for the safety of the public and to protect train passengers. However, due to limited railway closures to deliver both schemes as efficiently as possible we required the closure of all four railway lines for 72 hours. The May Spring bank holiday has given us the opportunity to carry out these essential works to both of the bridges. In the early stages of the project, an increase in traffic a certain times of the day is anticipated, however, this was compounded on Tuesday with a broken down vehicle on Peckham Road for a number of hours that reduced the road to a single lane.

Today, Thursday 10th May, Southwark Council and Network Rail have reviewed the signage on the diversion and taken into consideration the feedback from yourselves and have taken the steps to improve the signage where necessary , including placing traffic marshals at Bellenden Road at the junction of Holly Grove and Blenheim Grove at the junction of Bellenden Road, improving the signage at the junction Lyndhurst Way and Peckham Road. During a walkabout this morning, traffic was flowing well in the area.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your patience and your kind co-operation during this time.

We will continue to monitor the situation.

Kind regards

Paula Williams

Network Rail