Last week I was walking along the Greenway between West Ham and Plaistow when I spotted some new notices. A lot of the Greenway is closed at the moment so I assumed it was about that. The title on the first notice was 'Manor Road NOS Improvements', explaining underneath that NOS stands for Northern Outfall Sewer. But nowhere on the poster did it say anything was closed or closing so I didn't give it a second look.
I gave the map a second look. It showed a closure on the Greenway much longer than at present, with big 'no entry' signs at Abbey Creek and Upper Road. It seemed to suggest the section of the Greenway I was standing on was closed, except it plainly wasn't because I'd just walked along it. No dates appeared on the map, just as on the poster, nor any text confirming a closure. I carried on walking to BestMate's and we finished off watching Squid Game.
This week the poster and the map were still there, also a history of the Greenway and how historically sewer-tastic it is. This week I was more curious and decided to use the QR code to 'Scan for more information', as directed. And boy were they hiding some unwelcome information on their website!
The Greenway will indeed be closing here, additionally incorporating the bridge over the District line, but not until October. Why they didn't mention October anywhere on the printed notices I have no idea, but my best guesses are that either i) Thames Water don't want to frighten anyone yet, or ii) the people who designed the posters are incompetent.
More importantly it'll be closing from October until autumn 2028. I had to read that twice - 2028! That's a three year closure including all of next year, all of the year after and most of the year after that. And this is in addition to the existing closure over the Jubilee line which has been shut since last September, supposedly for eighteen months but it's actually going to be more like fifty.
I've made this summary to show what's closing when. It's not official but I hope it makes things clearer. (normally you'd colour the Greenway green, but I've used brown for hopefully obvious reasons)
I know the Northern Outfall Sewer is critical infrastructure and also Victorian, hence long-term maintenance is essential and works are likely to be major. But three years is a bloody long time to be sent off on a diversion, and given the lack of alternative routes locally it's a horrific diversion too.
There are no good east-west connections in this area other than the railway and the Greenway. Even the existing diversion over Abbey Creek and the Jubilee line, normally four minutes direct, involves a contorted twisty route that takes more like twelve. Once they additionally shut the next kilometre along the Greenway the paucity of those connections will be sorely highlighted, blighting pedestrians and especially cyclists whose cross-borough shortcut will be cruelly dashed.
Thames Water's closure map shows two diversions, a green one and a blue one, both substantially longer than the direct red. Blue runs north and connects to Stratford town centre rather than the other closed end of the Greenway. Green runs south and has to skirt the whole of West Ham Recreation Ground and the East London Cemetery. Bafflingly blue is described as northbound and green as southbound, despite direction being irrelevant in this case, so I can only assume that i) they meant northern and southern, ii) the people who designed the posters are incompetent.
The closed section of the Greenway will be 1.3km long.
The green diversion is 2.5km long.
The blue diversion is 3.1km long.
That's how bad this three year closure is.
The map also includes an orange line, a 'route connecting' blue back to the Greenway. This it turns out is the shortest diversion of all, a mere 2.0km, but you'd never draw that conclusion from the colours on the map. The diversion could be even shorter if the orange line followed Stephens Road instead, a reduction to 1.9km, and for both these reasons I conclude i) the people who designed the posters are incompetent, ii) the people who designed the posters are incompetent.
Thames Water have also produced a leaflet which they were dishing out to passers-by at an engagement event on Thursday and Friday. If you weren't there sorry, no leaflet for you. I went along and harangued the hapless Thames Water employee for a good ten minutes, not complaining about the need for repairs but pointing out how utterly inadequate the poster and the map were. Look, I said, the background map you've used doesn't even show the rest of the Greenway, only a blank grey background.
I harangued politely, and made sure the employee realised I wasn't having a go at them, only the incompetent people who designed the notice and the map. But I hope he passed on my observations and suggestions, and that the information provided by Thames Water evolves as the closure date approaches. If you're going to make everyone's journeys hugely worse for three years the least you can do is warn them competently.
