Will Abbey Wood Crossrail’s public realm improvements rapidly fail?

The area around Abbey Wood station is currently a giant building site as long-delayed public realm work is underway. New road layout, paving, lighting; that sort of thing.

Yet looking at renders of what is coming, and what the work entails, it all looks a likely candidate for going wrong very soon. It must be remembered that this area barely ses any enforcement against bad parking, and hasn’t for years at least on the Greenwich side. Paving by the station was a daily car park before Crossrail work begun:

Leaving the station often saw this:

So will the shiny new paving and public space being installed at high cost, as seen in renders below, end up a car park?

On my last visit there was, of course, a vehicle on paving blocking pedestrians:

Regular readers will know I mock Greenwich Council a fair bit for sticking up the ugliest bollards they can find apparently at random, but sometimes they are of course needed, and when installed with some rhyme or reason. If these renders are accurate, this is probably one place given recent history unless the authority will enforce on a very regular basis.

The other side of the station could well see the same issue. Wilton Road is to become two-way traffic with cars having to turn around by the station. It’s already pretty chaotic.

Add in minimal enforcement and the result could well be multi-million pound granite paving ruined. The borough boundary runs right down the middle of Wilton Road which could compound confusion.

In Bexley is Bonker’s regular pictures we see that enforcement is still pretty much non-existent on the Greenwich side. One car is parked all day, every day in what is supposed to be short stay. They have done for years. Clearly no one is checking.

And if that continues, expect a big car park after completion and millions of pounds of expensive paving becoming a bit of a mess within weeks.

Bexley is Bonkers is doing a steller job documenting changes as ever, and highlights that Felixstowe Road will close soon for work to be carried out along with other closures in the area causing mass delays.

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