A temporary bridge over the A14 at Swavesey will be taken down this week, having played its part in keeping construction traffic away from the busy A14 during construction of Britain’s biggest road upgrade.
The bridge, part of the £1.5 billion A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement, has been used to carry 160,000 cubic metres of construction materials – enough to fill 65 Olympic swimming pools – from the south to the north of the A14 in just over two months. Without it, 40,000 extra lorry movements would have been needed on the current A14.
Now all the construction materials have been moved across, the bridge is no longer needed and can be removed.
Highways England project manager for the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon Chris Griffin said:
Using this temporary bridge has helped us to carry out work to prepare the construction of the future Swavesey interchange with minimal impact on people’s journeys, and is just one of the ways in which we are keeping traffic moving while we deliver these vital improvements for the A14. The bridge will be taken down using temporary overnight closures on the A14, so I encourage drivers to plan ahead and find out what to do if they are affected.
To carry out this work safely, the A14 will need to be closed between junctions 24 (Godmanchester) and 31 (Girton interchange) from 9pm to 5am as follows:
- A14 eastbound closure only on Monday 20 November
- A14 westbound closure only on Tuesday 21 November
- Full A14 closure in both directions on Saturday 25 November
During the closures, clearly signed diversions will be in place. Drivers heading east will be diverted to take the A1198 to Caxton Gibbet, then the A428 to re-join the A14. Traffic heading west will follow this route in reverse. Local traffic will still be able to continue eastbound on the A14 to reach junction 27 (Fenstanton) and exit, at which point the A14 will be closed. Similarly local traffic heading westbound will still be able to reach junction 28 (Swavesey) and exit.
