Highways England project director David Bray told TP Weekly News: “The team worked incredibly hard to deliver this project and since Christmas we have been on site pretty much around the clock.”

He admitted that the past few weeks have been “challenging” due to the Coronavirus pandemic, with the team having to “re-engineer all of our working practices to maintain social distancing”. With many people working away from home and local hotels shut, good use was made of a 150 bed accommodation block on site.

“With large projects like this you cannot afford to relax; you constantly have to push yourself. The proudest thing for me was being part of an awesome team, which included a total of 14,000 people on the project,” he added.

Completion of the entire route this week is more than seven months earlier than predicted when construction began at the start of 2017. Work continues over the next few weeks to complete paths for cyclists, walkers and horse riders as well as landscaping. Over the next two years, work to demolish a viaduct carrying the old A14 near Huntingdon town centre and build new link roads will continue.

David Bray added that other major road building schemes including the A303 upgrade and Lower Thames Crossing, as well as rail projects such as High Speed 2, have been interested in how the A14 scheme has performed. “Part of our legacy is to share what we have done,” he said.

Major new structures built to carry the new A14 include a 750m long viaduct over the Great Ouse river and a new crossing of the East Coast Mainline railway.

Highways England’s chief executive Jim O’Sullivan said in a statement: “This upgrade is a key addition to our national infrastructure, better linking the north of England and the Midlands to the east of England and to the Haven ports. It also brings economic benefits to the wider region and local towns and communities.”

Roads Minister Baroness Vere added: “The upgrade will deliver faster, easier journeys for those travelling between Cambridge and Huntingdon, and will also improve links to the UK’s largest container port at Felixstowe – further bolstering our efforts to move goods around the UK at this critical time.”

The A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme was delivered by a team that brought together Balfour Beatty, Costain, Skanska, Atkins and CH2M.

(Photograph: Highways England)