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Transport for London (TfL) is moving forward with a landmark project to be procured through a public private partnership in the city of London.

The Silvertown tunnel road public private partnership (PPP) project is now in the hands of the Planning Inspectorate, a entity which deals with planning appeals, national infrastructure planning applications, examinations of local plans and other planning-related in the UK, after Transport for London (TfL) approved the submission of a Development Consent Order (DCO) on Wednesday 3 February 2016.

It is also known that following a recent consultation some changes, which includes the relocation of service buildings around the northern and southern portals, improved pedestrian and cycle crossings, have been made in the original project.

The project involves the development of a new river crossing between Silvertown and Greenwich Peninsula in east London. The river crossing will comprise of a twin bore road tunnel alongside Blackwall Tunnel with connections to the A1020 Silvertown Way/Lower Lea Crossing at the north and to the A102 Blackwall Tunnel Approach at the south. It is expected that the new infrastructure would, among others:

• Cut down on queuing at the Blackwall tunnel
• Include user charging at the Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels to manage demand and provide a source of revenue to help build the new tunnel
• Provide an opportunity to create new cross-river bus links in east London
• Improve road connections to and from Docklands and east London from south London

See how the new tunnel would link to the existing road network:

The total project investment is estimated at £750 million (US$1.078 billion). It is proposed that user charging will be applied to manage congestion and help fund the scheme.

The latest update specifies that the Silvertown Tunnel, linking the Greenwich Peninsula and Silvertown, will start construction work in 2018 and the earliest the Silvertown Tunnel could become operational is in 2022/23.

The selected bidder will be responsible for the design, build, finance and maintenance of the new tunnel. The proposed concession would have a period of around 30 years.

According to local sources, Leon Daniels, managing director of surface transport at TfL, said:

“In February 2016, the TfL Board approved the submission of a Development Consent Order (DCO) for powers to build and implement the Silvertown Tunnel scheme. We have now submitted this application and, subject to it being accepted and subsequent examination by the Planning Inspectorate, work on this vital river crossing could begin in 2018 with it being open to traffic by the early 2020s.”