Business groups and freight hauliers have welcomed the opening of a new 19km bypass to the south of Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire as part of Highways England’s major A14 improvement scheme.
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The Huntingdon bypass runs between Ellington and Swavesey and opened to traffic at midnight on Sunday, marking an important milestone for the £1.5Bn project which is due to complete in full at the end of 2020.
Cambridgeshire Chambers of Commerce chief executive John Bridge said that unreliable journey times and frequent tailbacks on the A14 have been a barrier to business for many years. “To have the first part of the road open is a tremendous first step to overcoming that barrier which most businesses will be celebrating.”
He particularly welcomed the separation of through traffic from local traffic but added: “The full benefits will not be felt until the remaining part is open, because clearly traffic still has a challenge getting through that corridor.”
Business and academic group Cambridge Ahead’s transport chair David Braben said: “The improvements brought by the new A14 will be felt and welcomed by businesses and commuters across our region.
“We have continued to see high levels of economic growth year on year, but upgrades across our whole transport system have not kept pace,” he added. “We need to see radical investment into a transformational network for the city, considering all modes, in order to continue creating job opportunities our surrounding communities can access.”
The Freight Transport Association’s head of East of England Natalie Chapman said: “Our members rely on effective and efficient road networks to keep goods moving across the UK, but the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon – a vital link connecting the East Coast ports in East Anglia with the Midlands and the rest of England – has long been plagued by congestion and safety issues.”
She said the Huntingdon bypass will help to boost connectivity, reliability and journey safety for commercial vehicle operators and private road users.
The old route of the A14 past Huntingdon has now been closed to allow work to remove an existing viaduct over a railway and build new link roads into the town centre.
Work on the remaining element of the project, between Swavesey and Milton, continues and is on schedule to completed by December next year.
(Photograph: Highways England)
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