Coldharbour Lane will be closed between Saturday and Monday (18-20 January) for the delivery of a giant 178-tonne supergrid transformer to the new Bengeworth Road substation between Camberwell and Brixton.
A second delivery next month will result in similar closures.
The delivery is part of work on National Grid’s £1 billion London Power Tunnels 2 project to reinforce the capital’s electricity network which involves a new Bengeworth Road substation and another at the junction of Acre Lane and Bedford Road.
National Grid says each transformer weighs the equivalent of 30 African elephants.
Transformers change voltage levels up or down to make sure power can be transmitted and distributed safely around the country.
They will be delivered to the Lambeth substation from Tilbury by haulage experts Allelys on specialist vehicles under police escort.
The first transformer’s journey – which is already under way by sea from Rotterdam – will take it from Tilbury clockwise around the M25 to junction 10, north-eastward on the A3 via Wandsworth and Battersea, and onward through Lambeth to Coldharbour Lane.
The Coldharbour Lane, closure at its Camberwell end begins at 11:59pm on Saturday 18 January and continues until 6pm on Monday 20 January – during which time the transformer will be manoeuvred into Bengeworth Road substation.
A diversion route to access Coldharbour Lane will go up Lilford Road, across Flaxman Road, and down Kenbury Street.
National Grid said residents and local businesses have been notified of the planned road closure and diversion route and will be informed about similar arrangements for the second transformer delivery during the first weekend of February.
At Bengeworth Road the transformers will be part of a significant UK first. The facility is set to become the country’s first and only substation free of the electrical insulating gas sulphur hexafluoride (SF6).
The new substation is in the centre of the 32.5km London Power Tunnels 2 route between Wimbledon and Crayford.
Before reaching Bengeqorth Road, on Sunday 19 January the transformer will head north-eastward on the A3, South Circular Road (A2025) and Swandon Way (A217), around Wandsworth Roundabout, on to York Road/Battersea Park Road (A3205), before turning right onto the A3216 (past Queenstown Road station) and regaining the A3 at Clapham Common.
It will dog-leg around Clapham Common North Side (B303/B224), before continuing north-eastward along the A3/Clapham High Street. It will turn right onto Camberwell New Road (A202) at Kennington Park, then right again onto Denmark Hill, and right again onto Coldharbour Lane (A2217), where the road closure will be in effect and it will stop overnight.
Two further supergrid transformers are due to be delivered to the project’s New Cross substation on Old Kent Road in February and over spring.
For more information about the deliveries, the London Power Tunnels 2 project, and how it is supporting local communities, contact 0800 093 1716 or londonpowertunnels@nationalgrid.com
That is AMAZING! Thanks for sharing these pics – Wowzer. Kinda reminds me of when the flooding happened in Herne Hill that time – a one-off ‘ingrained in my memory’ event :-).