Blakedale is supplying a bespoke fleet of vehicles to the consortium maintaining the new tunnel under the River Thames in east London.
Built to relieve pressure on the nearby Blackwall Tunnel and improve cross-river connectivity, Silvertown is the first new road tunnel in the capital in over 30 years and forms part of Transport for London’s long-term infrastructure strategy.
Blakedale is providing the Riverlinx consortium with two 3.5-tonne light truck mounted attenuator urban crash cushion vehicles, three smaller traffic safety vans - one of which is electric - and a 3.5-tonne dropside complete with tail lift.
The two urban crash cushion vehicles are built on Ford Transit and Volkswagen Crafter chassis and are used to escort recovery vehicles and conduct rolling road closures when needed for debris removal or incident response.
Crash tested to 43 mph, they are used to help protect operatives when working inside the tunnel.
The car-derived traffic management vans include two high-specification Peugeot Partners which are used for daily inspection and routine patrolling duties, together with an electric Renault E-TECH Kangoo.
The Ford Transit dropside with tail lift will remain on standby for general maintenance tasks in and around the tunnel.
John Hagan, CEO of Riverlinx, said: “Blakedale’s experience has been invaluable in shaping a fleet that meets the daily operational needs of everyone that uses the new tunnel.
“It will be particularly interesting to see how our electric van performs as it fits in with our aim of continuing to reduce emissions across all areas of our operation.”
The 1.4km Silvertown tunnel opened in April and links Newham to the Greenwich peninsula.
