Place making: why painting the bridge sadly isn’t an option

As part of the Streetworks scheme we heard from residents that they wanted to feel like they had arrived in West Norwood or Tulse Hill and that this wasn’t simply just a place to travel through. One way this has been done in other locations such as Loughbrough Junction and Brixton is to paint the bridges (as shown in the picture).

We have been investigating the options for doing this on the bridge that crosses Norwood Road, near Tulse Hill station for some time. However, sadly the costs required for this just aren’t adding up.

Using the actual costs of the bridge painting in both Loughbrough Junction and Brixton it is thought that painting our bridge would cost in the region of £200k. This isn’t really the cost of the painting itself, but closing the road and erecting scaffolding for the works to be done.

The bridge in Brixton cost in the region of £300k, whereas the one at Loughborough Junction cost approximately £170K.

We would also have to obtain consent from Network Rail who own the bridge and communication with them suggests this isn’t likely.

Sadly we do not have this much money left in the budget so we are investigating further ways of improving the look for the bridge, this ranges from adding additional pigeon proofing, to installing LED coloured lighting. We will keep you posted!