MT 106/470

South-East Planning and Transport Group: East London River Crossing Study (possible new road link from A13 at Beckton to A2 at Falconwood by way of new Thames crossing at Thamesmead)

Date range	1976-1979
Location	National Archives (see all files stored here)
Catalogue	See entry
File base	Series MT, subseries MT 106

Context

After the Ringways died a death, some parts lived on. One of the road plans that was really collateral damage and should never have been cancelled was Ringway 2 between the A13 and Thamesmead, a new river crossing in east London on which the Thamesmead development was dependent. The motorways were cancelled in 1973, and by 1976 the same GLC administration was actively lobbying the government to build the crossing as a trunk road scheme.

The file reveals that safeguarding of the line of Ringway 2 between the A12 and A2 was never lifted, so the extent to which the motorway was ever really cancelled at all was limited. Some papers in the file talk about calculating the smaller land area that would be required for the narrower D2 crossing that was now proposed, and selling off safeguarded property outside that line.

The scheme for the East London River Crossing (as it had become) entered the trunk road preparation pool in 1979 at a cost of £105m and was due to start work in 1985. It would open as A406.

The route of the ELRC and all subsequent proposals for river crossings at Gallions Reach, which is a little south-west of the Ringway 2 proposal, is a result of the safeguarded line being changed when the ELRC was formally proposed. This was done to open up parts of Thamesmead to development that were due to be completed by 1981, and would otherwise be delayed.

People with camera copies

Chris Marshall has a partial copy.