£1.76million being spent on improvements
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Fulham Palace Road is getting a facelift in 2013 following an agreement by Hammersmith & Fulham Council to spend £1.76 million provided by TfL and property developer St George on major improvements.
The council says the money will be spent on CCTV, resurfacing carriageways and highway improvements for the Fulham Palace Road corridor – including side streets – from Talgarth Road, in Hammersmith, to Putney Bridge in the south.
The council’s cabinet agreed in December that £750,000 given to the council as part of a legal agreement with property developer St George – known as Section 106 – would be ploughed into the project from January.
St George is building the nearby Fulham Reach scheme in Chancellors Road. The rest of the funding is coming from Transport for London.
The works aim to improve traffic flow along the road, pedestrian safety in the area and to crack down on crime.
They complement the successful Fulham Palace Road slip road scheme at Hammersmith Gyratory, which was funded by Transport for London and was completed early in 2012, and form part of the wider multi-million pound corridor improvements scheme as set out in the council’s transport plan.
Cabinet member for transport and technical services, Councillor Victoria Brocklebank-Fowler, said: "This work is vital in helping to get traffic moving on Fulham Palace Road, one of our main north-south routes, and unclog some of our most congested roads.
“We have worked hard to strike a balance for all road users, pedestrians and businesses with this scheme, and have identified significant improvements in every area along these roads. The works have already begun in some places and we will continue to work meticulously but as quickly as possible to minimise disruption but also so that everyone can feel the benefit of these enhancements soon."
Three consultations with residents and businesses have already taken place, and work to resurface the road and footway improvements has been happening at the north end of Fulham Palace Road
The money will be spent on upgrading the pedestrian crossings near Rigault Road and across Fulham High Street at the New Kings Road junction with countdown crossings. Short-stay one hour 40p ‘stop and shop’ parking bays will be created in Fulham Palace Road between Childerley Street and Gowan Avenue, and in Fulham High Street and Rigault Road, that will help local businesses and shoppers.
The main junctions of Fulham Palace Road with Fulham Road, New Kings Road and Fulham High Street, and Lillie Road will be amended to allow more capacity through the junctions. The northbound road from Putney Bridge Approach to the New Kings Road junction will be reduced from three narrow lanes to two wider lanes while the southbound bus lane will be shortened on Fulham Palace Road to improve the flow of traffic around the existing Fulham Road roundabout.
And once improvements to the pavements have been made, utility companies will not be allowed to carry out any works in the same place within three years of the resurfacing having happened.
There will be measures to make crossings more accessible to disabled pedestrians with tactile paving at all the crossings, a raised entry to the Rigault Road crossing and any unnecessary signs or ‘street furniture’ will be cleared away.
All the yellow lanterns on existing lamp columns along the Fulham Palace corridor will be changed to white lights, reducing energy use and annual running costs. A new bus stop near Ellerby Street will be installed and the entrances to Fulham Cemetery and Lillie Road Recreation Ground are being spruced up.
The work will be carried out in phases from now until May 2013.
January 3, 2013