Following a car crash that destroyed a portion of historic stone balustrade to the Serpentine Bridge, Price & Myers were asked to help with the structural reinstatement works, as well as to propose some potential options for enhancements to the affected bridge. Our challenge was how to sensitively upgrade the listed stone fabric, whilst also trying to form a vehicle barrier that was as compliant as possible to code.
The crash on Christmas Eve 2024 was not a one-time event; the 1820’s stone bridge experienced a similar vehicle impact around 30 years ago. Both collisions led to stonework falling off the bridge and onto the well-trodden path below. The question then became about how to prevent a vehicle, or large chunks of the stonework, from falling off and putting the pedestrians on this path at risk.
Working with Purcell, PAYE, and the Royal Parks team, this was a project of co-ordinating sensitive traffic calming measures, understanding the existing fabric of the bridge, and working out how to subtly hide a modern structure within the stonework of the repair to provide an improved barrier.
The new stone parapet conceals a network of interconnected stainless-steel reinforcement, made up of flat plates and reinforcing rods inside the stone bottles. All were keyed into the surrounding stone fabric of the bridge to provide a robust and resilient structure that also sets a precedent for the rest of the bridge parapet in terms of how close-to-code upgrades can be made where heritage constraints don't always allow this improvement in strength and robustness.
