Contractors working for Network Rail began cleaning the bridges earlier this week ahead of both being repainted in an attractive heritage-style railway green colour.
And at the council’s request, both bridges will also have the name of the station printed prominently on them to recreate their original Victorian-era appearance. New netting will also be installed underneath them to improve pigeon proofing.
How the bridges originally looked
The council had been pressing Network Rail to undertake this work for some time arguing that refurbished and smarter looking bridges would help improve the street scene in this part of Earlsfield.
And in order to get the project off the ground the council is providing £100,000 towards the overall cost of the scheme.
Wandsworth’s transport spokesman Cllr Jonathan Cook said: “This is really welcome news. The council has been pressing for this work to be done for some time so we are delighted work is now underway.
“The cleaned and repainted bridges will make a great contribution to the appearance of the station and to this part of Garratt Lane, while the improved pigeon proofing will mean pedestrians and cyclists not having to run the gauntlet of being hit by something unpleasant from up above as they pass underneath.
“The entire project should take about four weeks to complete so this is a reasonably big-scale project that will give the area a real boost.”
