Atlantic Road will be closed to all vehicles between Brixton Road and Electric Lane from Friday (10 July) until at least January next year for repairs to the platform of Brixton overground station – and also to gather data for any plans Lambeth council may have for the road.
Transport for London has announced that the 322 bus, which uses this stretch off road, will be diverted until 12 March 2021.
The “extensive” works “carried out with appropriate social distancing measures for the workforce and public” will also require the complete closure of the footway beneath the platform.
Lambeth council has told local traders that “every effort will be made to complete the works sooner”.
Pedestrians and cyclists will be able to use this section of Atlantic Road.
Traffic marshals will be on hand to assist with business deliveries and emergency access, which Network Rail said would be maintained at all times .
The council “will also use this opportunity to gather data on the effect on all types of traffic of this section of Atlantic Road being closed”.
It said that this would help to “inform decision-making on any future schemes Lambeth might implement here”.
The council has made recent major changes to Railton Road, which runs on from Atlantic Road to Herne Hill, to favour pedestrians and cyclists over cars and the Brixton Business Improvement District (BID) recently mooted making central Brixton a pedestrian-only zone.
The closure will add yet another burden to local businesses that have been seriously affected by the long-running work to refurbish the railway arches along Atlantic Road.
Once owned by Network Rail, they were sold, along with thousands of others across the UK, to the Arch Company.
Despite long and bitterly controversial local planning procedures, it would appear that Network Rail was unaware of the highly dangerous state of the platform above its arches.
The 322 diversions are:
Towards Crystal Palace: From Brixton Road with the junction of Brixton Road, ahead Gresham Road, left Coldharbour Lane, right Moorland Road, right Loughborough Park, right Somerleyton Road, left Coldharbour Lane, left Atlantic Road, to regular route.
Towards Clapham Common: From Atlantic Road with the junction of Coldharbour Lane, right Coldharbour Lane, right Somerleyton Road, left Loughborough Park, left Moorland Road , left Coldharbour Lane, right Gresham Road, ahead Stockwell Road, to regular route.
