Strand Underpass - London, UK
N 51° 30.612 W 000° 07.089
30U E 699973 N 5710501
The Strand underpass is a tunnel that takes a single lane of traffic north, from the north west end of Waterloo Bridge to Kingsway just north of Aldwych. The co-ordinates used are for the "opening" stone at Waterloo Bridge.
Waymark Code: WMQDDF
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 02/09/2016
Views: 2
The "opening" stone is built into a wall on the north east side of Waterloo Bridge at the entrance to the Riverside Terrace at Somerset House. It is inscribed:
Strand Underpass
London County Council
The Underpass
was opened on 21st January 1964
by the Right Hon
Lord Morrison of Lambeth
The actual entrance to the tunnel is in the centre of the road and there is no where near it where the stone could have been better placed. The exit from the underpass is also in the centre of a road at approximate position 51° 30.888'N; 000° 07.115'W.
Wikipedia has an article about the Strand Underpass that tells us:
The Strand Underpass (sometimes incorrectly called the Kingsway Underpass) is a vehicle tunnel in central London connecting Waterloo Bridge to Kingsway near Holborn.
The underpass is built within part of the former Kingsway tramway subway, which was 20 ft (6.6 m) wide and allowed bi-directional flow because of the fixed rails and relatively narrow width of the trams. The new underpass was built by John Mowlem & Co and opened on 21 January 1964. It is only 17 ft (6.25 m) wide, and consequently normally one-way northbound because of the side clearances required. The headroom is only 12 ft 6 in (3.75 m) due to the tunnel having to pass beneath the bridge abutment by a 1:12 gradient. An electronic 'eye' alerts drivers of tall vehicles and diverts them to an 'escape route' to the left of the entrance. However, high vehicles do still try to go through and so get stuck occasionally.
The underpass is a concrete box within the former tram subway, with the road surface at the original track level. At the northern end of the underpass the road rises to the surface on a new carriageway supported by metal pillars. This passes through the site of the former Aldwych tramway station: because of the greater width requirement, 27 trees and some pavement were removed for it to be constructed.
The tunnel is used by the 521 bus route northbound. In 2012, the direction of traffic in the tunnel was temporarily reversed, so that it was in use by southbound traffic. This was to facilitate easier traffic flow during the 2012 Summer Olympics.