Transport for London has teamed up with the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to stop HGV drivers causing potential damage to Tower Bridge.
The current weight restriction of 18-tonnes is broken up to 18 times a day, with many culprits driving foreign registered vehicles and crossing the bridge at night. Last week, MPS officers from the Commercial Vehicle Education Unit, accompanied by a team of traffic enforcement officers and TfL Freight Unit representatives, stopped HGVs during a night operation. Drivers breaking the limits were warned their companies would be contacted in the case of repeat offenders. The monitoring operations are expected to continue. Ted Hartill, city surveyor of the City of London Corporation – which owns Tower Bridge – said: ‘Engineers believe the continued passage of large vehicles is likely to damage the bridge and therefore, we welcome attempts by TfL and the police to restrict movements of such vehicles.’