Work is continuing on a £1.5 billion road upgrade project on the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon.

The scheme, which started in November last year, includes widening a total of seven miles of the A14 in each direction (across two sections) a major new bypass south of Huntingdon, widening a three-mile section of the A1 and demolition of a viaduct at Huntingdon, which will support improvements in the town.

So far, some of the scheme's 34 new bridges have been installed, while the outline for the 12-mile long Huntingdon bypass has emerged through the Cambridgeshire landscape.

In addition, the earthworks team has been stripping top soil over more than 17 miles out of the project's total length of 21 miles to create several sections of the future new road including: the Huntingdon bypass, the new Swavesey junction, and the five-mile long local access road, which will link local communities between Huntingdon and Cambridge without the need to use the A14.

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Steel-reinforced concrete columns for some of the 34 bridges to be built throughout the project have now started appearing along Ermine Street (A1198), the A1 and at the site of the future, 750-metre long River Great Ouse viaduct.

Elsewhere, the piling team drilled under the layers of clay and silt either side of the River Great Ouse to ensure the foundations and the viaduct columns themselves are stable enough to carry the 800 concrete bridge deck panels, weighing 25 tonnes each, on which the new carriageway will be built. While work continues to install the foundations and columns for some of the bridges, work has started to cast cast the concrete panels for the bridge decks including the 800 needed for the viaduct alone.

Chris Griffin, A14 project manager at Highways England, said the team is continuing to make "good progress" throughout the scheme.

"We have had mild and dry weather this winter and spring and have been making the most of it to move the project forward quickly and safely," he said.

"I am pleased that the outline for most of the new road's path has now been created and it won't be long before some of our first structures are completed.

"With construction gathering pace, we have now started tackling some of the biggest challenges on the project and it is exciting to see our innovative plans take shape on the ground, including the foundations and some of the columns for the viaduct on both sides of the River Great Ouse."

The project is scheduled to be fully completed by March 2021.

(LM/MH)