Request ID: FOI-1587-2425 Date published: 10 September 2024
You asked
Dear Sirs
I wish to receive the following information:
1. A precis of your plans to strengthen all the bridges and multi-storey car-parks in London due to the doubling of weight they will incur by the use of electric vehicles.
2. If you do not have such plans, why not?
3. The estimated costs of this work, which I expect to be in billions of pounds.
4. Where do you expect to get the money to pay for this essential work.
5. The time period for the implementation of the upgrade.
I am fully aware that an enormous amount of work is required and that this will cost trillions of pounds. I note you are beginning this at the Wood Lane junction of the Westway in Shepherds Bush. If this is not the case, please inform me otherwise.
In addition, I wish to know when Hammersmith Bridge will be rebuilt, replaced or demolished.
We answered
Our ref: FOI-1587-2425/GH
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 14 August 2024 asking for information about any plans to strengthen all the bridges and multi-storey car-parks in London.
Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and our information access policy.
Unfortunately we do not hold the information you require. TfL is not responsible for any multi-storey car parks in London. Where appropriate, our bridges have restrictions on the size and weight of vehicles allowed to use them. Regular checks are carried out to ensure the structure of our bridges are in good order and strong enough for any large or heavy vehicles which are allowed to use them.
We do not have plans to strengthen any of our bridges purely due to the increase in electric vehicles, and searching for any information we have on general plans to strengthen any of our bridges would be a huge task, which would exceed the ‘appropriate’ cost limit for responding to Freedom of Information requests. (Under section 12 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to comply with requests if we estimate that the cost of determining whether we hold the information, locating and retrieving it and extracting it from other information would exceed the appropriate limit. In this instance, we estimate that the time required to answer your request would exceed 18 hours which, at £25 per hour (the rate stipulated by the Regulations), exceeds the ‘appropriate limit’).
For information on Hammersmith Bridge, please see the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham’s website:
