BORIS Johnson has guaranteed that the creaking Hammersmith Flyover will be open in time for the Olympic Games.
Visiting the site this morning the Mayor of London insisted that engineers would be working day and night to ensure the flyover would be re-opened as soon as possible.
Road chiefs shut the busy 50-year-old stretch of the A4 days before Christmas after finding serious structural defects.
The decision to close the four-lane flyover, which links Talgarth Road and Great West Road, has brought traffic chaos to the area, with motorists facing persistent gridlock.
TfL had said that traffic may be able to return to the road on Monday but that is looking increasingly unlikely, and without an end in sight, fears have grown that the repair work could drag on.
When pushed by the Chronicle, Mr Johnson was unable to give a time frame but said that the picture would become clearer at the end of next week when all assessments have been completed.
He said: "I absolutely guarantee that the Hammersmith Flyover will be open for the Olympic Games. They have told me they will be able to find a solution over the next few days but they haven't give me a time frame of one week or two weeks, but that it will be done shortly. These are professional fellows that don't want to make a promise they can't keep. I want to reassure the thousands of motorists and local people who are suffering traffic hell that the flyover will not be closed one day longer than necessary."
