Boris Wants a £30bn Underground Ring Road in London

In a surprise announcement, Boris Johnson unveiled plans for a 22 mile underground ring road in London dubbed the ‘Inner Orbital Tunnel’, which would cost £30billion.

The aim of the game is to free up land for development, reduce congestion in the city and improve air quality.

All very humble aims, however he has admitted that plans are at ‘very early stages’ and the mayor’s office has no initial idea of how the project would be funded, only suggesting g money would be made from property development.

This new layout would result in Tower Bridge becoming traffic free except to buses and cyclists; the new tunnel would bring about two new crossing beneath the Thames.

The Inner Orbital Tunnel would create subterranean duel carriageways linking key routes from the A40 Westway to the A12 in the east and the A1 route north to the A2 running south. Areas of London including Camden Town, Highbury, Whitechapel, Elephant and Castle and Chelsea would literally have cars whizzing around below them.

Mr Johnson said: “There are big arguments in favour. There are obviously arguments against.”

Rooting for the case is Isabel Dedring, deputy mayor for transport, who said: “We are at the very early stage in exploring the potential. Cities such as Paris, Oslo and Boston have undertaken these kinds of ambitious projects and have seen dramatic results.

“This is not about creating a motorway through the centre of London. It’s about freeing up capacity on the city surface, improving air quality, and reclaiming space for public parks, pedestrians and cyclists.”

Rooting against is Transport Network columnist and head of the Campaign for Better Transport, Stephen Joseph who said access to tunnels would ‘destroy communities’. He also claimed plans would not help traffic flow or the economy.

Tfl are getting desperate to find ideas to aliviate congestion in the city as forcasts predict a 60% rise in congestion in the central zone between now and 2031, while outer areas would face 15 to 25 % increase. Time is ticking.