page_title: Blackwall Tunnel
section_title: Future
hierarchical_section_title: Blackwall Tunnel / Future
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of the planned Silvertown Tunnel in London, UK
context_page_description: The Blackwall Tunnel is a pair of road tunnels underneath the River Thames in east London, England linking the London Borough of Tower Hamlets with the Royal Borough of Greenwich, and part of the A102 road. The northern portal lies just south of the East India Dock Road in Blackwall; the southern entrances are just south of The O₂ on the Greenwich Peninsula. The road is managed by Transport for London.
  The tunnel was originally opened as a single bore in 1897 by the then Prince of Wales, as a major transport project to improve commerce and trade in London's East End, and supported a mix of foot, cycle, horse-drawn and vehicular traffic. By the 1930s, capacity was becoming inadequate, and consequently a second bore opened in 1967, handling southbound traffic while the earlier 19th century tunnel handles northbound.
  The northern approach takes traffic from the A12 and the southern approach takes traffic from the A2, making the tunnel crossing a key link for both local and longer-distance traffic between the north and south sides of the river.
context_section_description: The Blackwall Tunnel is the only major road crossing of the Thames in East London, and consequently has very high traffic volumes. Furthermore, the limitations of the western bore of the tunnel (not accessible to vehicles taller than 4 m (13 ft)), means that larger HGV and double decker buses cannot pass through the tunnel in both directions. Given this, an expansion of the crossing has been proposed for many years—such as a third bore of the tunnel, proposed in 1989—however none of these proposals have come to fruition. 
  Following the cancellation of the Thames Gateway Bridge in 2008, a new crossing from the Greenwich Peninsula to Silvertown—the Silvertown Tunnel—was proposed by TfL. Following a public inquiry, the government approved the proposal in May 2018, and the contract to build the tunnel was awarded in November 2019.
  The Silvertown Tunnel will have two tunnels, one for each direction—with a dedicated HGV and bus lane. This will allow a substantial increase in cross-river bus services, as the new tunnel will be able to be used by double decker buses. Following completion of the new crossing in around 2025, both the Silvertown and Blackwall tunnels will be tolled.
caption: Map of the planned route of the Silvertown Tunnel
exif: {}