New bridge opens as part of UK’s biggest road infrastructure initative

The A14 Integrated Delivery Team – comprising Balfour Beatty, Costain and Skanska – has completed the second of 34 new bridges and structures as part of the UK’s biggest road infrastructure initative.

It’s another major milestone for the £1.5Bn Highways England orchestrated road infrastructure improvement programme. As part of the works a 21-mile stretch of the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon is to be upgraded from two to three lanes in both directions, while a brand new 17-mile bypass will be built just south of Huntingdon.

The new bridge, which connects Brampton and Grafham in Cambridgeshire, is 50 metres longer than the previous structure in order to accommodate the widened A1 and forthcoming A14 – totalling ten lanes of carriageway in all. The old bridge will be demolished by excavators over the coming week, with any and all concrete recovered crushed and reused elsewhere on the project.

According to Mike Evans, Highways England’s Senior Stakeholder Manager for the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon: “The Brampton Road bridge is an important link for communities living across the A1 and A14 just south of Huntingdon and we are delighted that many turned up to mark the occasion and open the new bridge to traffic with us.

“Now that the new bridge is opened we can get on with demolishing the old bridge and continue building the new A1 and A14 carriageways at this location and keep to the project’s challenging timetable to open the new A14 to traffic by the end of 2020.”

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