New bridge opens across UK’s biggest road project

The A14 Integrated Delivery Team, comprised of Balfour Beatty, Skanska and Costain, has successfully completed the second of 34 bridges and main structures on the UK’s biggest road project.

The newly opened bridge forms part of Highways England’s £1.5billion major improvement scheme on the A14. The project will see the upgrade of a 21-mile stretch of the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon from two to three lanes in each direction including a brand new 17-mile bypass south of Huntingdon.

Connecting Brampton and Grafham in Cambridgeshire, the new bridge is 50 metres longer than the previous bridge as it is required to span both the new, widened A1 and future A14 – totalling 10 lanes of carriageway. The old bridge will be demolished by excavators over the coming days and the concrete recovered will be crushed and reused on the project.

Mike Evans, Highways England senior stakeholder manager for the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon, said: “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.”