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Once again, this weekend (April 13-14) is going to be a weekend full of travel disruption. One of London’s busiest river crossings, the Blackwall Tunnel, is closing on Saturday and Sunday. Meanwhile, the DLR is also going to be shut across the majority of its services.
If you live in southeast London you might have trouble getting around, so here's everything you need to know about the planned closures.
Blackwall Tunnel closures this weekend
The southbound route of the Blackwall Tunnel will be shut for planned maintenance of the northbound route. Traffic will still be able to travel northbound, but it will be re-routed into the southbound tunnel. On April 13-15 the tunnel will be shut southbound between 12.01am on Saturday morning and 5am (at the latest) on the following Monday morning.
Alternative nearby route options include the M24 Dartford Crossing, Tower Bridge and the Rotherhithe tunnel (which could close itself later this year), though drivers of HGVs as well as vans of higher than two metres tall are encouraged to avoid central London during these periods and beware of size restrictions.
The 108 bus route, the only one which operates through the tunnel, will be temporarily split in two when the tunnel is partially closed, operating between Lewisham and North Greenwich and between Canning Town and Stratford. Passengers will have to instead use the Jubilee line to get across the river, though will be automatically refunded for this part of the journey.
You can check for regular traffic updates in the area on the TfL website here.
What’s going on with the DLR?
The majority of the Docklands Light Railway will be closed at the same time as the Blackwall Tunnel so new trains can be tested on the network.
Services between Lewisham-Bank, Canary Wharf-Stratford and Tower Gateway-Canning Town will all be cancelled on both Saturday and Sunday. However, the Woolwich Arsenal to Stratford International service will still run.
Other cross-river transport links, such as Thameslink, the London Overground through Canada Water and the Elizabeth Line, will run as normal, although the Jubilee Line will have engineering works at the other end of the line, between Stanmore and West Hampstead.
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