Transport for London has announced an 8 week closure of the right-turn junction from Bressenden Place into Victoria Street in Westminster to allow BT’s Openreach division to carry out maintenance works and are warning drivers of the need to follow signposted diversion routes during the diversion to avoid becoming liable for the Congestion Charge.
Two diversions will be in operation, the first for general traffic excluding Heavy Goods Vehicles for Victoria and Victoria Station will be diverted down Buckingham Gate across Victoria Street, into and down Rochester Row to Vauxhall Bridge Road.
The second route for traffic including Heavy Goods Vehicles will continue to use Bressenden Place before being diverted left into Victoria Street to Parliament Square and then along Millbank to Vauxhall Bridge.
TfL say drivers who divert from either route will need to pay the Congestion Charge or risk receiving a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN). Drivers wishing to use the northbound Congestion Charge Free Through Route will not be affected by the works on Victoria Street.
Alan Bristow, TfL’s Director of Traffic Operations, said: “We have liaised with Openreach over these urgent works and they have assured us that they will complete the work as quickly as possible.”
“We ask motorists to bear with us while these works are carried out and we will do our best to ensure that disruption is kept to a minimum.”
Bus route 507 (towards Victoria) will also be affected by the works with the route diverted “to help reduce congestion along Victoria Street”.
Openreach’s Jerome De Chassey said the firm “are working closely with TfL to reduce the impact on traffic while we carry out this essential work and apologise for any inconvenience that these works will cause road-users in London.”
Bill C says
September 29, 2009 at 5:48 pmThe diversion is ok if you are able to follow it. Driving through London at one of the busiest times of the day is not helpful. I lost the diversion signs at Parliament square and headed out of London the easiest way I know – down to Elephant and Castle. SNAP……exiting the congestion charge zone……what a money making con……
kevin says
September 30, 2009 at 1:18 pmHas anyone received a PCN whilst for following this route? I got one this morning saying that I was on Buckingham Palace Road (North of Lower Grosvenor Place) – which I was. This is part of the signed route. However, the description of the route on TFL’s website (http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/12601.aspx) and the map (http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/Bressenden_closure_diversions.pdf) names this stretch of road as Buckingham Gate. They obviously haven’t programmed the cameras properly. Trying to explain this to the call centre has proved to be a waste of time so I assume they’ll carry on issuing hundreds of these notices resulting in a huge amount of wasted money as well as annoyance for the public caught!
Blue says
October 2, 2009 at 6:28 pmYes, I got the exact same PCN this am. There must be thousands of us. Sort it out TFL.
Blue says
October 6, 2009 at 4:37 pmand another one yesterday!
gt says
November 4, 2009 at 5:35 pmAnyone get caught out because the diversion ended after just under 5 weeks ? I carried on using the diversion for 4 more days before the first pcn arrived on my doormat. I didn’t notice that the flashing road sign at marble arch had been changed to something different.I have appealed and am waiting to see the outcome.