The first full week of roadworks at the Bow Roundabout has seen lengthy queues and a bit more drilling. The queues were at their worst on Wednesday when an additional set of roadworks temporarily afflicted Tredegar Road, at one point stretching over three quarters of a mile along Bow Road. You did not want to be stuck in a bus near the back of that. I heard honking all evening.
The entire space under the eastern side of the flyover is now barriered off, bar a small gap to allow pedestrians through. Drilling is concentrated along one kerb beside Stratford High Street but also immediately above the River Lea which passes silently (and diagonally) underneath. Thus far three sides of the roundabout and three sliproads are entirely unaffected by the works so technically shouldn't have been coned off yet, but I guess there's a jolly good reason why they have to be, creating all these queues.
The biggest news this week, however, is that someone put in an FoI request to TfL and managed to get the overall plans for the works being undertaken. Scrutinising the twomaps suggests it's not going to be as radical as I feared.
• Only the Bow side of the roundabout is being widened from two lanes to three, two of which will be specifically for traffic turning right (which should put an end to the many near-collisions I've seen here over the years).
• The slip road from Stratford High Street is also being widened from two lanes to three, one to accommodate traffic from the contraflow which is being diverted under the flyover. This looks to be introducing two downsides - an extra set of traffic lights and also a low bridge restriction for traffic that can currently be of any height.
• The reason the workmen are currently drilling along the line of the Lea is because the expansion joint is being replaced from parapet to parapet.
• No cycle lanes are being additionally modified.
I still don't get how all of this can possibly be due to take four months, but that's why I'm not a civil engineer.
