A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon "news"

[wrinkly]

Press release on the first anniversary of the start of work:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/15bn ... nstruction

[jackal]

How much would it cost to put that right??

I'm afraid you've opened a can of worms there, as it's more a matter of 'not breaking it' than putting it right. The history of the design of this interchange is one of continual decrease in standards until we reached the mess of the soon-to-be-built design.

The 2005 design shows a high speed semi-direct connector:

Bar Hill 2005 - Copy.PNG (27.75 KiB) Viewed 2408 times

In 2009 the design is refreshed with a loop - still freeflow, but lower speed:

The design for the 2013 non-statutory consultation was no longer freeflow, but was at least grade-separated from the LAR:

Finally, after the statutory consultation in 2014, a slip was removed, replacing the proper GSJ with the infamous signalized quasi-GSJ:


That's progress

[DavidBrown]

As someone who doesn't know the area at all, looking at the older plans for that junction, why on earth would an insignificant B road need any form of freeflow, let alone that huge 2005 proposal that many motorway-motorway junctions would be envious of!

[jackal]

It's a major commuting route into Cambridge and there's a major development at Northstowe. Even in the current plans a lane drops there.

[ais523]

In 2009 the design is refreshed with a loop - still freeflow, but lower speed:

Are you sure that's freeflow? It has a freeflow right from the A14 onto the B1050, but I can't see a freeflow left from the B1050 onto the A14. So it's freeflowed what's normally the harder movement, but not the easier one (presumably because the "north LAR" is in the way. Also, what's up with that north LAR anyway? it's connected using a roundabout but the junction allows only LILO movements. So something seems off here.

Incidentally, the 2013 design doesn't seem safe; there's a very short weaving section between the LAR and the roundabout over the A14 (especially bad as it has a filter lane, meaning that a get-in-lane situation is required). So putting a set of traffic lights there will at least help everyone get into the correct lane without colliding. It's not a great solution but it at least seems workable; and putting a signalised T junction just before what's presumably a signalised roundabout isn't a huge loss in flow capacity if you synchronise the lights correctly (i.e. so that traffic from the B1050 only gets stopped at one set of lights at the most; if the roundabout happens to have a fortunate radius you could also make the opposite journey get stopped at one set of lights at the most, too).

[jackal]

I'm talking about the right turn being freeflow. The left turn isn't freeflow in any design (even 2005).

As for the 2013 design, northbound the lane allocation could mostly be resolved at the roundabout assuming it's signalized so there would be minimal weaving there. The southbound merge could perhaps be signalized if weaving was such a problem, similiar to this, which would still leave you with three of four movements free of signals, and none of the potential for high speed collisions you get at a signalized T-junctions. Basically fewer conflicts is better from any perspective, especially safety.

Overall I think 2009 was the best trade off between capacity and cost. I'm sure the roundabout is a full access one, just with a filter lane added (so not LILO only). Presumably the design was rejected because they felt they had to put the LAR to the north rather than south of the A14.

[c2R]

A minor correction order published today: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2017/1121/made

[wrinkly]

I suppose this is a reasonable thread for this press release:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/part ... -under-m11

[wrinkly]

And here's another press release: temporary bridge at Swavesey to be removed:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/a14- ... taken-down

[c2R]

...and a "one year on" newsletter: http://assets.highways.gov.uk/roads/roa ... flet+1.pdf

[jackal]

Further to the Bar Hill discussion above, I found these options from 2009:

http://iprojects.costain.com/a14_public ... 5.6.10.pdf

If you have a nose around at the link below you can see options for the other junctions, including some eye opening ones for Girton. You can also see an outline of the 2001 plans, which I don't recall seeing before, and which are closer in some respects to what is being built than the ambitious plans of 2005-2009.

http://iprojects.costain.com/a14_public ... /DVD1.html

[wrinkly]

Press release: railway bridge beams over the ECML:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/a14- ... -beam-lift

[mapboy]

Further to the Bar Hill discussion above, I found these options from 2009:

http://iprojects.costain.com/a14_public ... 5.6.10.pdf

If you have a nose around at the link below you can see options for the other junctions, including some eye opening ones for Girton. You can also see an outline of the 2001 plans, which I don't recall seeing before, and which are closer in some respects to what is being built than the ambitious plans of 2005-2009.

http://iprojects.costain.com/a14_public ... /DVD1.html

Great find! I find it really interesting how in the older designs much consideration was given to making the A14(S)-B1050 movements as free-flowing as possible, yet with the current plans isn't the junction going to be a plain roundabout interchange?

[B1040]

The B1050 could be an important road as an alternative route to the Fens North and East of St Ives. It gets quite a lot of traffic in the morning and evening rush hours and has pinch points at Willingham crossroads and Earith Bridge. The B1050 south of Earith Bridge probably has more traffic than the A1123 East of there.
I would guess that an upgrade by the river and a bypass for Earith would be prohibitively expensive.
This part of the country has a low level of road connectivity.
I suspect traffic planners neither want to upgrade the road, nor attract more traffic onto it.

[roadtester]

Also, the Conington barn has had a couple of repaints on its north face this week.

Article from last week on the Conington Barn in one of the local rags:

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/ca ... s-12829467

Apparently, although it is to be demolished, it may be replaced by some sort of art installation/graffiti wall in recognition of its role in entertaining drivers over the years!

Cheers for the link; yes, I did wonder on Thursday how long it was going to remain for... It would be nice to see a dedicated graffiti installation on the route...

There's an update on the "graffiti wall".

Apparently it will stay up for a bit longer than expected:

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/ca ... e-13967856

Also drone footage of the scheme here:

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/ca ... s-13968608

[roadtester]

A report here with a few more snippets of detail on the scheme.

https://www.pbctoday.co.uk/news/special ... ent/36907/

[A303Chris]

I don't know if this has been posted before, can not see it, but the HE uploaded this complete fly through of the scheme a couple of week ago. Gives you a very good impression of the final scheme

A14 Fly Through

[havaska_uk]

I notice the signs are still green on that video

[Truvelo]

That video was also shot a good 20 years after the scheme was completed

[si404]

That video was also shot a good 20 years after the scheme was completed

But the traffic flows aren't anywhere near the super-congested 2030 levels. They don't look like 2020 levels either!