South Harrow Then and Now

THE LONG AWAITED RECONSTRUCTION OF PETTS HILL BRIDGE

Most people will be aware of the various proposals over the years to eliminate the road traffic bottleneck caused by the narrow Petts Hill Bridge. These finally came to fruition in 2004 when the London Boroughs of Ealing and Harrow together with Transport for London announced proposals to remove the pavements under the bridge on each side and provide tunnels through the railway embankment for pedestrians. This was despite the fact that there were serious signs of aging mainly of cracks in the brickwork supporting the steel bridge over the road, although Network Rail who at the time had no financial input into the project stated that the bridge was good for another 100 years. Effectively the project would provide a short length of bus lane under the bridge in one direction only at a cost of £3.5millionto save four minutes on the journey. Fortunately when the plans were announced Mrs Linda Koupparis Chair of the Danemead Grove and Petts Hill Residents Association became involved, extended the area of the Association to include The Heights and then started a vigorous and long drawn out campaign to prevent the residents from that side of the railway from having to pass through tunnels to go about their daily business in South Harrow. Much to the annoyance of the politicians and engineers many flaws in the design detail were exposed and it was not until exploratory works were undertaken it was found that Mrs Koupparis was right and through her efforts Network Rail became involved. As a result it was decided the pedestrian tunnels needed to be longer and further away from the sides of the existing bridge. As a result of Linda's persistence on behalf of the residents as the project was about to get underway it was stopped and amazingly a plan for total bridge replacement was produced as was the additional cost of over £6 million.

Unfortunately Linda died before the project was completed but her efforts are acknowledged in the form of a plaque on one of the new bridge's supporting walls. Ian Jones who has been involved in the creation of this presentation is proud to have worked with Linda to help create this fitting and above all safe for pedestrians entrance to the area.

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