Andrew Adonis: Boris can’t put off a new Thames crossing in the east

There's an article on the London Evening Standard about the dearth of river crossings east of Tower Bridge.  Here's a short excerpt:

Our inability to get essential infrastructure planned and built is destroying business and jobs. Nowhere is this more so than in East London and the vast but under-developed Thames Gateway, where both the Government and the Mayor of London have failed to do one of the things most essential for growth: bridging the Thames.

There are 16 road bridges spanning the 20 miles of the Thames between Tower Bridge and Kew.  However, east of Tower Bridge, the Thames remains an unbridged chasm. There are only three road tunnels and one road bridge for the next 20 miles east to the Dartford Crossing.

Since then a few rail crossings have been built, mostly for the DLR and the Jubilee Line.  These made dramatic business and housing growth possible in Docklands, Canary Wharf in particular.

But all cross-river road traffic is forced through three of the worst traffic bottlenecks in the country: the Blackwall and Rotherhithe tunnels and the Dartford Crossing.