Blakedale provides custom fleet for Silvertown Tunnel

Blakedale is supporting Riverlinx with a custom fleet, the consortium chosen to design, build, finance and maintain the Silvertown Tunnel, the first road tunnel to be built under the Thames in 45 years. It connects Greenwich and west Silvertown and is designed to relieve congestion at the Blackwall Tunnel. 

Plans for Silvertown Tunnel emerged back in 2012 as a result of the Victorian-era Blackwall Tunnel struggling to cope with volumes of traffic it was not initially designed for. These plans were approved by the Secretary of State for Transport in 2018 and Silvertown opened on 7 April 2025. 

Now, Blakedale is helping the project by providing Riverlinx with a custom operational fleet, comprising two 3.5t Urban Crash Cushion vehicles, three traffic safety vans including an electric Renault E-TECH Kangoo and two Peugeot Partners, and a 3.5t dropside vehicle with tail lift. 

The Urban Crash Cushion vehicles are built on Ford Transit and Volkswagen Crater chassis and will be used to provide rolling road closures and escort recovery vehicles. The traffic safety vans will be deployed for daily inspections and routing patrolling, while the dropside vehicle will be kept on standby for general maintenance duties. 

The fleet is supplied under a full maintenance rental agreement and will adhere to compliance and reliability at all times. 

According to Transport for London (TfL), Blackwall Tunnel previously closed approximately 700 times a year. Since Silvertown opened in April there has been a 39% reduction in unplanned closures, particularly those involving overheight vehicles.