Highways England is looking to ensure its £1.5Bn A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon upgrade leaves a positive legacy by encouraging local residents to come up with ideas for associated community projects.

People living along the road in Cambridgeshire are being invited from this week to apply for grants of up to £10,000 to deliver their proposed initiatives.

The grants will be awarded over the next two years for community projects across a wide range of areas including the environment, health and wellbeing, heritage, arts, skills, and culture. Ideas are also welcome from not for profit organisations such as schools and community groups which seek to deliver charitable projects with public benefit.

“The construction of the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme will have a lasting impact on communities that live around it, opening up opportunities for positive initiatives to the benefit of everyone in the area,” said Highways England’s legacy lead on the A14 project Gerard Smith.

“This fund will help to kick start those opportunities and ensure that the new A14’s legacy will go way beyond that of a normal road improvement project.”

He added: “We want to work with local communities to make the most of these opportunities and ensure we leave behind a positive legacy once the project is completed.”

Project applications are expected to consider and take advantage of the transformation that the 33.5km road improvement scheme will bring to the local area. For example projects could focus on the new leisure opportunities opened up by the scheme or seek to complement the environmental measures being put in place.

The A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme is on schedule to start construction in late 2016. A feature about the project is included in the July/August issue of Transportation Professional, available now.

(Photo: Highways England)