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Monday 13 Jan 2025

Refurbishment of the iconic Hungerford Bridge to begin next week

Region & Route:

Southern

| Southern: Kent

The 161-year old Hungerford railway bridge is to be restored to protect it for the future, with work set to be completed by the end of winter 2028

Starting on 18 January, Network Rail will begin essential work to refurbish the Hungerford Bridge, the structure that takes the railway over the Thames between the South Bank and London Charing Cross station.

The current bridge comprises spans made of wrought iron lattice girders dating from 1864. With such old infrastructure, it’s important that the bridge is maintained so that the railway can be run safely and reliably for passengers.

During the work engineers will prepare and paint the bridge, test the truss pins - which join together the supports – and replace the pin end caps on the girders. All of the original metalwork will be retained and refurbished.

David Davidson, Network Rail’s Kent Route director said: “Many of the bridges on Britain’s railway are from the Victorian era and being responsible for this national heritage is both a privilege and a challenge. Some of the structures are very old, so are vulnerable to corrosion and damage from weather.

“Refurbishment of Hungerford Bridge will take three years, and we won’t need to close the bridge to trains during this first phase as we’ll be working at times that cause the least disruption to train services. This means we are carrying out some of our work during the night.

"To avoid further disruption, we will also use barges to deliver and remove waste materials to Surrey Pier for the period of the works to avoid creating extra traffic and the resulting pollution. This will avoid the equivalent of six truck freight deliveries through central London a week.”

Hungerford Bridge crosses the River Thames from the South Bank, close to London Waterloo station, to the north side of the Thames at Charing Cross Station, east of Trafalgar Square.

It is a steel truss railway bridge flanked by two more recent pedestrian bridges.

The work will start in January 2025 and is expected to be completed by the end of winter 2028.

The refurbishment work will be carried out in two phases, with the first phase commencing on the spans on the Southbank and the south side of the river from January 2025 to January 2026.

The second phase of the works will be the main refurbishment works which will take place on the remaining spans across the river from January 2026 to winter 2028.

There will be additional weekend closures in 2026-2028, with the dates yet to be confirmed.