A Costain/Skanska joint venture will deliver two of the three sections of the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon Improvement Scheme after being awarded a £600 million contract by Highways England.
The Costain joint venture with Skanska has been awarded package one, covering the A1 junction at Alconbury to the East Coast Mainline and package two covering east of the East Coast Mainline to Swavesey.
The contracts have been awarded under Highways England’s Collaborative Delivery Framework (CDF).
Due to the size of the project, it has been broken down into development (detailed design and pre-construction) and delivery phases, with construction of the proposed scheme split into four packages of work.
The detailed design contract has been awarded to Atkins CH2M joint venture at a total cost of £35.3m. The initial award is for the development phase at a value of £19.6m. Once the scheme is given the go ahead the joint venture will provide design support and site assurance services throughout the scheme to a value of £15.7m.
There are two construction packages still to be awarded, the third, widening the existing A14 from Swavesey to Milton, is being re-tendered and is due to be awarded in the summer.
The fourth package is for the demolition of the viaduct over the East Coast Mainline at Huntingdon and associated works – this will be tendered under the CDF in 2019.
Chris Taylor, director for Complex Infrastructure at Highways England, said: “The A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme is the first major award under the CDF and is to enable delivery of an up to £1.5 billion investment of national importance.
“We have raised the standards we expect from our supply partners – we expect quality of performance and for them to work collaboratively to deliver the excellence that our customers and stakeholders expect of us.
“We continue to be committed to working closely with our framework suppliers to ensure our expectations are clear and well understood.”
The proposed improvement scheme will involve a new major bypass between Swavesey and Brampton, widening the A1 between Brampton and Alconbury, widening the existing A14 between Swavesey and Milton, improving the junctions at Bar Hill, Swavesey, Girton, Histon and Milton, Huntingdon Town Centre improvements, to include the demolition of the viaduct, and a new local access road.
Subject to the outcome of a development consent order examination by the Planning Inspectorate, and to the Transport Secretary’s decision regarding Highways England’s development consent order application, the proposed scheme is on target for main construction work to start in late 2016. The new bypass and widened A14 would open to traffic in 2020.
