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So, after £11.5 million was spent on refurbishing the Greenwich Foot Tunnel, what’s it like now the new lifts are working?

Well, the light isn’t working, one of the glass windows has already been smashed, and you’ll have to wait a while for the lift….

When the lift comes, it takes an age to work properly…

…or it simply refuses to shift at all. What fun for all the family!

I ended up helping people carry buggies up the stairs on Sunday afternoon after the north side lift simply refused to work properly. From what I can gather, there’s a problem with the north lift where it resets itself and waits four or five minutes before moving. It’s not thought to have anything to do with the damage to the glass window – bringing to mind the possibility that the glass was smashed when someone got frustrated with the doors being closed but nothing moving…

Despite the millions spent on the project, internally the tunnel looks as bad as ever. The grilles in the roof on the south side are filthy, old signage remains in place, and the lighting is poor. The stairs are still surrounded by plywood, making it difficult for anyone trying to a get a buggy or a bike up them. Aside from the lift, the only obvious sign of improvement is where the narrow part of the tunnel on the north side (which masks World War II bomb damage) has been repainted.

I’m told the emergency help points don’t work properly – I didn’t check myself – but a sellotaped sign at the bottom of the stairwell (where there is next to no mobile reception) advises people to ring a costly 0845 number to report problems. The users of our lift tried pressing the emergency button inside, only to have operators repeatedly ask “are you stuck in the lift?”

The tunnel’s lift attendants are all being made redundant, but are being kept on site to check for problems. By the time an attendant arrived, the lift had started to move again. It happens a lot, we were told; with nine or 10 full breakdowns in the past week on the south side, and four or five on the north side.

The emergency buttons are answered by staff at Atlas Lifts rather than at Greenwich Council – so should you need police help in the tunnel, you’ll end up being patched through to a call centre. There’s also been problems with Atlas not recognising the Greenwich Foot Tunnel lifts as their responsibility, and asking attendants who report problems to provide a postcode before they can help.

Granted, the work’s not yet finished, but the problems with the lifts are the latest twist in a sorry tale, largely blamed on some nonsense about “hidden structures”. Contractors Balfour Beatty were replaced with Lakehouse earlier this year after a series of delays to a project that also includes the Woolwich Foot Tunnel, which reopened in a dreadful state before Christmas after a 15-month closure.

A Christmas present from Greenwich Council – and no, not the three copies of Greenwich Time that appeared on my doormat on Wednesday. Woolwich Foot Tunnel reopened at 6am yesterday after being completely closed for at least 15 months. The news came out of nowhere – particularly as Greenwich had claimed the tunnel wouldn’t be open until spring 2012, and that its cabinet member in charge of the project didn’t appear to have a clue what was going on.

In fact, the sign on the Woolwich entrance still says the tunnel is closed until spring 2012.

As with Greenwich, there’s still no lifts in place, but serious problems with the stairs forced Woolwich’s complete closure in the autumn of 2011. Finally, they’ve been fixed.

If you’d missed the cut-and-pasted press-releases churned up by news websites yesterday, you’d have no clue it was back in business. It’s still covered in scaffolding, while he south entrance is tucked away next to the back door of the Waterfront Leisure Centre. The north entrance leads straight out onto the North Circular Road instead of to the adjacent bus stop. When I went to have a look, it was eerily deserted. (Although at least one other walker went down there yesterday…)

But what improvements would I find within? Would it be sparkling clean, with a new lighting scheme? Would I, as press reports indicated, I find shiny new stairs? I thought back to when Tube stations had been revamped, and stepped downstairs…

It’s pretty much the same as it was when it closed in September 2010. Maybe filthier. The treads on the stairs are the same – and broken in parts – and the tiles are as dirty as they always were. At the foot of the stairs, you’ll find the same obsolete signage that’s been there for years, and it feels a bit like you’re walking through – well, a tunnel that’s been closed for 15 months.

There is no initial sign of the “substantial refurbishment” promised when the council first talked about the works here and at Greenwich in 2009. There’s still those always-slightly unsettling patches where water has got in. It feels a little like being locked in a disused Tube station – rather than an underground tunnel that’s had half of £11.5m spent on it.

So where has the money gone?

Well, you can see where new cabling’s in for lighting, as well as a CCTV system, speakers and help points – although the latter haven’t yet been commissioned. No sign of the new lifts as yet, though.

Granted, the shabbiness, along with its amazing acoustics, is part of the Woolwich Foot Tunnel’s charm (although I don’t remember it actually being that dirty) along with that of its Greenwich neighbour.

But when the new, passenger-operated, lifts come in, the tunnel isn’t going to feel particularly welcoming without staff in there if it’s still as grimy as it is at the moment. The lack of obvious signs to improve the ambience of the tunnel only raises more questions about what’s been a farcical refurbishment operation.

If Greenwich had been more open about the issues facing the tunnels from the start – hey, how about some before/after pictures of these broken stairs? – perhaps people wouldn’t be annoyed about this long, drawn-out process that should have been finished nine months ago.

It’s good to have the Woolwich tunnel back, though, and at least this saga has taken a happy turn. Despite the lack of lifts, it’s now open 24-hours a day, including throughout Christmas.

There’s some more happy news on the tunnel front, with the Greenwich Foot Tunnel – usually closed weekday evenings – open from now right through to January 3. (Thanks to Greenwich’s communications team for confirming that.) So unlike last year, both tunnels will be open on Christmas Day, when no other transport runs.

Now, will both tunnels both be fully up and running by the Olympics? We have seven months to find out…

You might remember my post a month ago about the continuing fiasco of the Greenwich and Woolwich foot tunnels, whose refurbishment has turned into a long-running saga. Asked by Greenwich Cyclists’ Anthony Austin, cabinet member for regeneration, enterprise and skills Denise Hyland put the delay down to the discovery of “hidden structures”.

None of this made much sense, so I put in a Freedom of Information request to find out just what these “hidden structures” were. Here’s the response – which isn’t actually about hidden structures at all, but about issues with the stairs not picked up in initial surveys.

I’ve edited it slightly for sense – the original is here. Stringers support the stairs, treads are the bits you tread on and a soffit is the underside.

The comment related to the stairs in both locations. In all four shafts, these have corrosion of the load bearing faces and ends of the cast iron treads and corrosion hidden behind the stair stringers that could not be detected until the stringers were removed. In addition, many of the individual treads have been found to be completely fractured and these have been replaced with specially-cast replacements.

This hairline-fracture damage was not detectable until the holding bolts on the stair soffits had been removed.

Removal of chequer-plate flooring to the machine rooms has revealed structural repairs required to the structural members before the re-installation of the lifts and motors, and at high level on the Greenwich cupolas. Fractured and broken cast iron elements have been removed and re-cast or repaired ready for replacement.

Again, these problems were not apparent to the pre-contract survey and inspection either because the structures and components were inaccessible or they only revealed themselves as components were accessed for conservation.

So, the problems are less about “hidden structures”, which bring to mind all sorts of riverbed horrors (remember, there’s World War II bomb damage on the north side) but more about hairline cracks on the steps and in the machine rooms. Which was perhaps the answer Denise Hyland should have given to Mr Austin last month. Or maybe it would make a feature to fill up the pages of council weekly Greenwich Time instead of another photo-op for the council leader. But never mind. We know now.

There are some positive signs at Greenwich – the scaffolding is down at Cutty Sark Gardens and in Island Gardens, although the last time I passed Woolwich, it looked as if the site had been abandoned. Whatever is going on down there, hopefully we’re nearing the end of this saga.

Before Greenwich councillors all trooped off to knock back the wine on Wednesday night, the tricky subject of Greenwich and Woolwich Foot Tunnels came up.

Naturally, it wasn’t an elected politician who brought it up – but Anthony Austin of Greenwich Cyclists. He asked just what the hell is going on with a project that should have been finished this spring, but now looks like it’s running a year behind schedule, with one tunnel liftless and shut at night, and the other completely closed.

“Who at Greenwich Council is managing the refurbishment of the Greenwich and Woolwich foot tunnels, and what was the original stated schedule of works and by how much has it been delayed?,” he asked in a written question.

Cabinet member for regeneration, enterprise and skills Denise Hyland responded:

“Firstly, I would like to apologise for the continued inconvenience to the public as a result of the partial closure of the tunnels and the shutdown of the lift service.

“The works to the foot tunnels are being carried out by contractors and consultants, whp also manage the works on a day-to-day basis, engaged by the Director of Regeneration, Enterprise and Skills. The original programme for the works as known at the time for these century-old structures was estimated to be complete in the spring of 2011. Additional works and site complexities will mean the tunnels are unlikely to open fully before early 2012.

“The funding for the project has come from Government and no council funds are involved.”

Mr Austin then asked a follow-up question, the response to which you can hear here…

Listening to that response, I’m not sure if Cllr Hyland is really on top of the situation – it sounds like a painful piece of improvisation. At present, Greenwich Foot Tunnel is open daytimes only, with no lift service, and Woolwich Foot Tunnel is completely closed.

“May I thank Mr Austin for his supplementary… and reassure him that we are doing our absolute level best to bring these tunnels back into full operation, with the Greenwich tunnel early in 2012. This has been a heritage project, bringing the 100-year-old tunnels back into full use, and we have had decisions to make where we have had hidden structures have been uncovered and further work has been necessary.

“Private contractors manage the work on a day-to-day basis… and we have put pressure on our contractors and worked with them in a positive partnership to bring a swift resolution to the tunnel [sic].

“Can I say – absolute apology on behalf of the council to pedestrians and cyclists, because although the tunnels are open [sic], they haven’t had the proper lifts functioning in the way that they should. So, er, y’know, complete apologies for that, and we are working hard for a quick resolution.”

There’s no mention of Woolwich Foot Tunnel at all in that statement, which gives the impression that Cllr Hyland believes it is still open. And what on earth are these “hidden structures”? Shouldn’t one of the only councils in the country to publish its own weekly newspaper be telling us what’s happening?

It’s also interesting to hear the tunnels now described as a “heritage project”. The Woolwich Foot Tunnel celebrates its centenary next year, the Greenwich tunnel opened in 1902. Yet when Transport for London started refurbishing the Blackwall Tunnel, built in 1897, that wasn’t called a “heritage project”. TfL’s work there is running ahead of schedule, while Greenwich’s work is now a year late.

So we’re still no further ahead with understanding just what the hell is going on in those foot tunnels. With the Greenwich tunnel’s stairwells looking largely untouched – and the Woolwich tunnel’s southern portal boarded up and deserted – what are the odds on the project being finished by the Olympics?

(For later readers: The tunnel reopened – without lifts – just before Christmas 2011. The signs still said it was closed though. Read on for a tale of woe and secrecy, if you like.) (Hello LFGSS forum.)

Woolwich Foot Tunnel will now be closed until spring 2012, pushing its reopening a year beyond schedule, according to notices placed at the shut-down river crossing by Greenwich Council.

Work began in April 2009 on both the Woolwich tunnel and its sister crossing at Greenwich as part of a refurbishment programme originally costed at £11.5 million, with the job due to be finished within two years.

But the work at both tunnels, which is being carried by contractors Balfour Beatty, has been beset by problems and delays.

While both tunnels were meant to stay open while work was taking place, the Woolwich tunnel closed altogether last autumn, firstly because of problems with its stairs, and later because of “additional works to the crown of the tunnel”, according to Greenwich cabinet member Denise Hyland, who said in March that the tunnel would re-open in June.

Pedestrians and cyclists at Woolwich are able to use the Woolwich Ferry during daytimes, with walkers also able to pay to use the Docklands Light Railway as an alternative.

The council’s website still claims the Woolwich tunnel will reopen in August 2011, and no news of the delay has been published in its weekly newspaper, Greenwich Time.

Greenwich Foot Tunnel has been closed at night since February while its lifts are being replaced, following a period of regular sudden closures and a period when it was shut altogether because the old lifts kept breaking down while the stairs were out of service. There is no alternative for cyclists at Greenwich, although pedestrians can pay to use the Docklands Light Railway or a limited river boat service.

There is no news at the moment on whether delays have also affected work at Greenwich.

Meanwhile, the London Assembly’s transport committee chair has formally complained to Greenwich Council after it failed to respond to her questions on the foot tunnel repairs.

Liberal Democrat Caroline Pidgeon first contacted leader Chris Roberts in 2009 on the issue, only to receive a reply refusing to answer, and telling her to ask her Labour colleague Len Duvall for information.

A further letter in February 2011 received no response, and nor did a letter to council chief executive Mary Ney – whose £190,000 job is supposed to be apolitical – in April 2011.

She said: “The record of Greenwich Council in upgrading these tunnels and keeping users updated has been appalling.

“The situation over Greenwich Foot Tunnel has been bad enough, but they have taken incompetence to new heights over the Woolwich Foot Tunnel.

“How can a council say on its website that a public highway will finally be re-opened by the end of this month and then have signage at the entrance to the tunnel saying it will be another six months before it is actually open to the public?

“There would be uproar if motorists were treated like this. The fact that Greenwich Council think they can treat pedestrians and cyclists in such a poor manner says everything about the low priority they give to walking and cycling.”

She added that she was “appalled” that her own enquiries into the issue had been ignored, and was prepared to take her complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman.

Greenwich Foot Tunnel’s full reopening has been delayed once again, with users facing night time closures and no lifts until September, it has emerged.

Work on the Woolwich Foot Tunnel, which has been completely closed since last year, will also not be finished until August.

There has been no formal announcement of the delay, and there are no notices at the Greenwich tunnel to explain the latest situation to the thousands of walkers and cyclists who use it each day.

Instead, Greenwich Council has buried the news on its website, explaining the six-month delay at Greenwich is down to “additional works and problems with materials used in the repairs”.

There is no explanation for why the works at Woolwich are taking five months longer than planned.

Work on both tunnels should have finished in March, but the completion date was then pushed back to June, before being moved to August and September without any announcement.

While operated by Greenwich Council, the two tunnels are used by walkers and cyclists from across London – and particularly by cyclists from neighbouring Lewisham borough.

London Assembly transport committee chair Caroline Pidgeon wrote to Greenwich Council leader Chris Roberts in February asking for explanations about why the refurbishment project was taking so long. Cllr Roberts has not replied. In 2009, Roberts suggested she direct her questions to a Labour member of the assembly.

In April, the Liberal Democrat politician sent a follow-up letter to Greenwich chief executive Mary Ney – but eight weeks later, the £190,000/year council boss has also not responded. (See both letters here.)

Pidgeon said: “For four months the leader of Greenwich Council has repeatedly failed to answer any of my questions I have put to him about the fiasco of the Greenwich Foot Tunnel.

“A full explanation and apology for the delays would also be welcome.”

The £11.5m project includes repairing the tunnels and stairwells, installing new CCTV and replacing the 19-year-old lifts with models that do not need attendants. It has been beset by difficulties, including the complete closure of the Woolwich tunnel due to problems with the stairwell and almost-daily closures of the Greenwich tunnel due to lift problems.

Works to renovate the foot tunnels at Greenwich and Woolwich are running behind schedule, with the Woolwich Foot Tunnel staying closed until June, it was revealed at Wednesday night’s Greenwich Council meeting.

Currently, the Greenwich tunnel is closed overnight on weekdays with no lifts, while the Woolwich tunnel has been closed altogether since September 2010, as part of a scheme to refurbish both river crossings.

Work on the Greenwich tunnel was blighted by lift failures while the stairs were closed, resulting in 20 unscheduled closures in the month of January alone. (See this document supplied under the Freedom of Information Act.)

Meanwhile, problems with the stairs in the Woolwich tunnel meant it had to be closed altogether shortly after engineers began replacing the lifts.

With only a narrow stairwell available at Greenwich, the foot tunnel will be closed altogether** only be open northbound from 10am-noon on London Marathon day, 17 April.

The £11.5m scheme was due to be finished this month, but a written answer from Greenwich Council cabinet member Denise Hyland revealed that it will continue at least to June.

In response to a question from Greenwich Cyclists‘ Anthony Austin, she said: “The main works at Greenwich Foot Tunnel will be concluded in June 2011. The tunnel will then be open 24 hours a day. Commissioning of the lifts and incorporating the CCTV system into the monitoring room will continue to the end of July 2011.

“This has had a knock-on effect on the installation of the lifts and electrical installation on the stairs.”

When the work is finally finished, both tunnels will be served by unstaffed lifts which will be open all day and all night, and monitored by CCTV cameras.

**(UPDATE 8 APRIL: Despite contradictory information on Transport for London’s website, Greenwich Council has asked me to make clear the tunnel will be open for northbound users only, and that a free boat service will be provided from Greenwich Pier to Canary Wharf between 10.30am-1pm.)

(If you’ve come here via a search engine, you should find the current foot tunnel status here.)

853 exclusive: Greenwich Council has officially closed Greenwich Foot Tunnel to the public following a series of lift failures, leaving pedestrians and cyclists to pay for detours.

The tunnel to the Isle of Dogs is undergoing major renovation works, along with its sister crossing at Woolwich, which are due to be completed by April.

But with the stairs taken out of service in September, users have had to rely on increasingly unreliable lifts, which now appear to have broken down altogether. The Woolwich tunnel closed in November because of problems with the stairs while the lifts were being replaced, and is not due to reopen until March.

Greenwich tunnel users are now greeted with a public notice stating the tunnel was formally closed to the public from 4 February “because of the likelihood of danger to the public (and the need to carry out emergency lift repair works)” for 21 days, or until the work is completed.

Pedestrians can use the DLR between Cutty Sark and Island Gardens, but cyclists either have to pay to use the Thames Clippers boat service to Masthouse Terrace Pier – if it is running – or take a detour via Tower Bridge, Rotherhithe Tunnel or Woolwich Ferry.

Despite this notice being dated 4 February, no announcement has been made about it on the Greenwich Council website since then, nor has it appeared in its weekly newspaper, Greenwich Time. The council has been using its Twitter feed to give day-to-day updates on the tunnel’s status without referring to any closure order.

The last update to the council’s telephone information line (020 8853 2988) was on Monday, and merely states that both tunnels are closed without giving a planned reopening date.

To make matters worse, work is now running behind schedule. Work on the stairwells at the Greenwich tunnel was meant to be finished in January to enable the lifts, themselves only installed in 1992, to be replaced.

The lack of information on the tunnel closure has been criticised by local Labour MP Nick Raynsford as well as Ken Livingstone’s running-mate for the London mayoralty, Val Shawcross.

Liberal Democrat Assembly member Caroline Pidgeon wrote to Greenwich Council leader Chris Roberts last week about the unreliable service in the foot tunnel.

“The foot tunnel is an absolutely key component in the London cycle and pedestrian network… the closure of the tunnel has a significant effect on people’s ability to cross the river,” she said in the letter.

“Many people are angry that the tunnel has been closed with no warning because this often compels people to use more dangerous routes, such as the Rotherhithe Tunnel, and gives people no time or warning to plan alternative, safer routes to their destination.”

6.45PM UPDATE: Greenwich Council did not respond to a request for comment sent to them early on Thursday morning. However, its Twitter feed confirmed the story was true, in a roundabout way:

Greenwich Foot Tunnel due to reopen at the end of next week when stairs refurb expected to complete. Access will only be poss via stairs—
Greenwich Council (@Greenwichcouncl) February 17, 2011

The “end of next week” is, coincidentally, at the end of the 21-day closure period for the tunnel. The council’s foot tunnels web page has also been changed, although users have to scroll down to discover news of the tunnel closures.

10AM FRIDAY UPDATE: London Assembly member Caroline Pidgeon has attacked Greenwich Council’s “incompetence” in its handling of the closures, while a letter from council leader Chris Roberts refusing to answer questions on the foot tunnel revamp has also emerged. More at The Scoop. Docklands 24 has also followed the story up (and linked back to me, which is lovely of them.)

2:15PM FRIDAY UPDATE: Greenwich Council has released this statement: “Greenwich Council is carrying out a major investment programme to renew the Greenwich and Woolwich foot tunnels, which are around 100 years old.

“Greenwich Council apologises for the inconvenience caused to users. We wish to stress that this is very much a temporary situation with the newly refurbished stairs expected to reopen by the end of February.”

More stories and comment on Greenwich and Woolwich foot tunnels.

It was a bit chilly last Friday morning when I was hanging around Cutty Sark Gardens with a microphone.

The plan had been to go into the depths of the Greenwich Foot Tunnel and record a piece for The Greenwich Podcast about the shambles surrounding its refurbishment.

Of course, the foot tunnel was closed. But when the foot tunnel is closed, there’s always cyclists riding up to it, and swearing under their breath when they find it’s closed. What we didn’t expect to find, though, was a passing MP – Nick Raynsford was wandering past.

Best go and have a word, then. He was there to check out the situation as well, as well as that with the mysterious development at Greenwich Pier.

“There’s a need for a great deal more information on all these works,” he told me. “Yes, the outcome will be fine when they’re completed… but in the meantime, but in the meantime, a lot of people are absolutely confused about what is going on.”

You can hear more from him, plus his views on the Greenwich Market redevelopment – and what he’d say to Greenwich Council about it, plus comic Arthur Smith chatting about his old pal Malcolm Hardee, on the podcast, which you can download from its website or subscribe to via iTunes.

Or you could just click below and turn the speakers up…

In other ego-boosting pluggery, I’ve written about the general grumpy state of flux and uncertainty in Greenwich for London monthly Snipe, available in a shedload of venues across London, including the ever-awesome Greenwich Union.

It also kicks off a new section for its website, The Scoop, where me and Kidbrooke’s finest, Adam Bienkov, appear as curiously-photographed figures trying to get under the skin of issues across the capital. It’ll be a slow start, but your tip-offs and news would be much appreciated.

After it was revealed the Greenwich Foot Tunnel was closed without warning 16 times in a month, what is Greenwich Council doing to make sure people know about any problems while it’s being refurbished?

There’s clearly the will in the press office, which runs its Twitter feed and has been using it to update people since my original post in November – but how closely is the rest of the council monitoring what’s going on beneath the Thames?

Thursday lunchtime, and someone tries – and fails – to use the tunnel…

Is #Greenwich Foot Tunnel supposed to be shut today? Good job there's a free alternative…..wait…. —
Chris O (@smalltown2k) December 30, 2010

A short while later, the council pops up:

Greenwich Foot Tunnel is open every day this week from 8am to 8pm. Woolwich Foot Tunnel is closed. More at: http://tinyurl.com/37jwaz2—
Greenwich Council (@Greenwichcouncl) December 30, 2010

Which prompted these responses…

@Greenwichcouncl apart from now when its shut eh?—
Ian Roberts (@the_penfool) December 30, 2010

@Greenwichcouncl Funny, looked shut when I was there about 12…!—
Chris O (@smalltown2k) December 30, 2010

Ooops. The council’s press office responded…

@smalltown2k Hi – we checked twice today with Highways who rang lift staff. They reported open & working. Can you confirm it was shut? Thnks—
Greenwich Council (@Greenwichcouncl) December 30, 2010

@Greenwichcouncl Well, I stopped short of giving the door a go but it looked decidedly closed to me.—
Chris O (@smalltown2k) December 30, 2010

It was also closed around 1pm, it appears. So what happened?

On one level – and I can’t emphasise this enough – this exchange is a good thing, because the council is engaging with the public and through that, it’s discovering something has gone wrong. If nobody had done that, the council may well have been none the wiser.

On another level, though – just what control does Greenwich Council have over what is going on in that foot tunnel? If the council’s highways department doesn’t even know when it’s closed, how is everyone else meant to find out? It also makes me think back to that closure in November, when one lift operator turned up only to discover he wasn’t needed, and a cyclist told me he was sure other lift operators were in the habit of shutting it down early.

These sudden closures will hopefully not last long into the new year – work on the stairwells is due to finish during January, when work will begin on replacing those lifts. But between now and then, tunnel users will just have to take their chances…

Official information on the foot tunnel closures can be found on the Greenwich Council website. A recorded status message is also available on 020 8853 2988, although this has not been updated for three weeks.