Road Bridge Inspection Reports
Request ID: FOI-1320-1819
Date published: 12 December 2018
You asked
Revised request - FOI-1149-1819:
I attach a list of the hundred bridges I would like reports for.
Cranford - South (Original)
Camden Road Bridge
Wandsworth High Street
Tooley Street Bridge
Belgrave Dock Bridge
Distillary Dock Bridge
Timber Wharf Bridge
Railway Dock Entrance Bridge
Westminster Bridge
Blind Dock Bridge
Doultons Dock Bridge
White Hart Dock Bridge
Battersea Bridge
Kew Bridge North Approach Ramp
Kew Bridge South Approach
Kew Bridge
Clifford Avenue S Approach
Clifford Avenue N Approach
Vauxhall Bridge
Lee High Road Bridge
Hanger Lane Ealing LUL Bridge
Waddon Marsh North Bound
Sidcup Road River Quaggy
Woolwich Manor Way Fixed Bridge
Shirehall
Seven Sisters Road New River Bridge
Great West Road
North Circular en River Brent Viaduct
Turkey Brook (Original)
Grand Union Canal Bridge (A4)
Redbridge
Mutton Brook Bridge
Ingrebourne River
River Rom Bridge
Longford River
Dukes River
Great North Way
Brent River Bridge
Wraysbury River Bridge
River Colne Bridge
Duke of Northumberland's River
Chapel Canal Bridge
Western Avenue Park Royal
Western Avenue Railway
Priory Bridge
Beverley Bridge
Grosvenor Dock Bridge
Western Avenue Hillingdon U21C
Gunnersbury Avenue Rail
Lambeth Bridge
Bedford Bridge
Crane Bridge
Chiswick Bridge
Morden Road (over Tramlink)
Great Chertsey Road Bridge
Armoury Way Bridge
Iron Bridge Neasden
Hanger Lane (LRT) - Original
Redbridge Widening
Bath Road West
Bath Road East
Rowley Lane Flyover
Bunns Lane Bridge
Newbury Park Station LTE Bridge
Hook Underpass West
Hook Underpass East
Bow Bridge over River Lea
BTNA Glencoe Street Bridge
Cranford - North (P/S Ext.)
London Road
Euston Rd UP
Hammersmith Flyover
Edgware Road Station Girdering
Brent Cross Flyover
Brent Cross N/E Slip Rd
Brent Cross N/W Slip Rd
Brent Cross North
Brent Cross N/W Connector
Brent Cross South
Brent Cross SE Slip Road
Brent Cross SW Slip Road
Putwell
Edgware Rd Station Raft
Bourne Road Flyover
Coombe Lane Flyover
Marylebone Flyover
Edgware Way (over M1)
Hall Lane Flyover
Gallows Corner Flyover
Bushey Road Flyover
Burlington Road Flyover
The Highway Bridge (Rotherhithe Tnl Vent Shaft)
Colindeep Lane Bridge
Pump Pail Slip Roads
Croydon Flyover
Turkey Brook (New)
Hansard Green Cantilever/Retaining Wall (3/10)
Hogarth Flyover
Westway Slip, Westbourne
Westway Slip, Ranelagh
We answered
Our Ref: FOI-1320-1819
Thank you for your further e-mail regarding your request for information about road bridge inspections reports.
Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and our information access policy.
I can confirm that we do hold the information you require. However, we are refusing your request under section 14(1) of the Act. After reviewing a sample of our records we consider that providing the requested information would place an unreasonable burden on us. Our principal duty is to provide an effective transport service for London and we consider that answering this request would represent a disproportionate effort. It would be a significant distraction from our work managing the TfL network, requiring re-allocation of already limited resources and placing an unacceptable burden on a small number of personnel. We do wish to clarify that whilst we consider that your request falls under section 14(1) of the FOI Act, this does not reflect a conclusion that it has been your intention to deliberately place an undue burden on our resources.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) guidance states that one of the indicators of a request which may fall under section 14(1) is that it “appears to be part of a completely random approach, lacks any clear focus, or seems to have been solely designed for the purpose of ‘fishing’ for information without any idea of what might be revealed.”
The ICO guidance provides the following examples of a ‘fishing expedition’ request which may fall under section 14(1) if it:
- Imposes a burden by obliging the authority to sift through a substantial volume of information to isolate and extract the relevant details;
- Encompasses information which is only of limited value because of the wide scope of the request;
- Creates a burden by requiring the authority to spend a considerable amount of time considering any exemptions and redactions.
Each of the 100 inspection reports requested are on average around 150 pages in length, with some being up over 500 pages. Each of these would need to be assessed, line by line, to consider whether any exemptions should apply. Due to the detailed nature of the reports it is likely that some information would need to be redacted for security purposes. We would therefore need to read in excess of 15,000 pages of reports and consider whether their content should be disclosed.
We consider this burden would be disproportionate to the benefit of providing it. If you would like to re-submit a more focused, specific request then we will, of course, consider it. For example, a request for the inspection report for a specific bridge or a smaller number of specifically identified bridges would be less likely to raise concerns about the disproportionate effort required to answer it.
Yours sincerely
Gemma Jacob
Senior FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London
[email protected]
Back to top