A14 bridge opened and old bridge to be demolished in the same week
The A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon road upgrade is hitting two milestones this week, with a new bridge opening to traffic just days before the bridge it is replacing is being demolished.
A new bridge over the A1 near Brampton was opened on Monday and the bridge it replaces will be demolished this weekend, as part of the £1.5 billion major improvement scheme.
The Brampton Road bridge in Grafham, which links Brampton and Grafham in Cambridgeshire and spans the current two-lane A1 dual carriageway, has just been upgraded to a newer, longer model.
The new bridge, which is 50 metres longer than the old one and will need to span both the new, widened A1 and future A14 – totalling up to 12 lanes of carriageway at this location including slip roads, was officially opened on Monday by Brampton Parish Council Chairman Cllr Simon Jordan and his family. The project team invited residents from Brampton and Grafham to cross the bridge – the second to be opened on the scheme – for the first time in a variety of vehicles including electric and vintage cars, motorcycles and bicycles.
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 on Monday 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.”
The old Brampton Road bridge will be demolished this weekend by excavators positioned on the protected A1 carriageway beneath it, which will break it down mechanically. All the concrete recovered from the old bridge will be crushed and reused on the project.
Highways England is upgrading a 21-mile stretch of the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon to three lanes in each direction including a brand new 17-mile bypass south of Huntingdon, with four lanes in each direction between Bar Hill and Girton.
The project, which includes 34 bridges and main structures, will add additional capacity, boost the local and national economy and cut up to 20 minutes off journeys.
