Our Ref:         FOI-1356-1920

Thank you for your request received on 6 August 2019 asking for information about the Rotherhithe to Canary Wharf Crossing.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we hold some of the information you require. You asked:

I would like a copy of the written reasons given by the PLA for the increase to the impact loadings and span for the Rotherhithe to Canary Wharf bridge.

We do not hold this information as the PLA did not give written reasons for the increase to impact loadings or span, but requested that we worked closely with them to develop a scheme which balanced a range of factors including safety/convenience for bridge and river users.

The ship impact loading is calculated to the relevant Eurocode for the observed river traffic. The ship impact protection is designed such that any of the observed ships cannot impact the towers at any tide condition. The span is dictated by the width of the ‘Authorised Channel’ in the river which must remain clear of structures, as well as a safety buffer.

Discussions were held with the PLA on the alignment of the structure. This alignment had an impact upon the span length as the more perpendicular to the river, the shorter the span would be due to the constraints of the Authorised Channel. However, this had to be taken into account alongside factors such as the directness of the route and the impact of bridge foundations upon the Jubilee line.

At Mayor’s Questions on 18th July Sadiq Khan said that an independent review had been carried out on the reForm/Elliott Wood Rotherhithe Bridge design by the Institute of Civil Engineers. I would like a copy of this report please.

We have checked the transcript of the Mayor’s Questions on 18 July and the Mayor noted that the decision to proceed with TfL’s proposed bridge design was endorsed by an independent peer review by the Institution of Civil Engineers: https://www.london.gov.uk/questions/2019/14155.

The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) review was not carried out on the reForm/Elliot Wood Rotherhithe Bridge design, but instead considered the question, “Has TfL appropriately considered different mechanism options and chosen the most appropriate for this scheme?”. Bascule bridges, as a mechanism option which the reForm design uses, were considered as part of this, but at no time was the ICE requested to carry out a review of the reForm design specifically. Please find a copy of the ICE report attached. We have since held further discussions with reform/Elliot Wood and have asked the ICE to consider the merits of undertaking any further independent review.

In accordance with our obligations under Data Protection legislation some information has been withheld from the attached correspondence, as required by section 40(2) of the FOI Act. This is because disclosure of this personal data would be a breach of the legislation, specifically the first principle of Article 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation which requires all processing of personal data to be fair and lawful. It would not be fair to disclose this personal information when the individuals have no expectation it would be disclosed and TfL has not satisfied one of the conditions which would make the processing ‘fair’.

This exemption to the right of access to information is an absolute exemption and not subject to an assessment of whether the public interest favours use of the exemption.

If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for some reason, please feel free to contact me.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely

Gemma Jacob
Senior FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London

[email protected]

Attachments