A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon "news"

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jervi
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Re: A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon "news"

Post by jervi »

roadtester wrote: Thu Nov 07, 2019 17:30 Is anyone interested in a get together to drive the new bit and perhaps have a meet/chat before/after - perhaps some time during the first weekend after opening?
Yeah sure, are people looking to go as soon as it is open in the early morning. Or are more sociable hours in mind?
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roadtester
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Re: A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon "news"

Post by roadtester »

jervi wrote: Thu Nov 07, 2019 22:36
roadtester wrote: Thu Nov 07, 2019 17:30 Is anyone interested in a get together to drive the new bit and perhaps have a meet/chat before/after - perhaps some time during the first weekend after opening?
Yeah sure, are people looking to go as soon as it is open in the early morning. Or are more sociable hours in mind?
I'll probably go down there myself on day 1 anyway as I'm local, but I think the opening day is a Monday, which is why I suggested some time the following weekend for a meet-up when more people can make it.
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mikehindsonevans
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Re: A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon "news"

Post by mikehindsonevans »

roadtester wrote: Thu Nov 07, 2019 22:39
jervi wrote: Thu Nov 07, 2019 22:36
roadtester wrote: Thu Nov 07, 2019 17:30 Is anyone interested in a get together to drive the new bit and perhaps have a meet/chat before/after - perhaps some time during the first weekend after opening?
Yeah sure, are people looking to go as soon as it is open in the early morning. Or are more sociable hours in mind?
I'll probably go down there myself on day 1 anyway as I'm local, but I think the opening day is a Monday, which is why I suggested some time the following weekend for a meet-up when more people can make it.
With an office in Cambridge and a home in Cheshire, I have seen a lot of this new road building on Sunday night (to Cambridge round road closures) and Friday night (heading home along 39-plus miles of roadworks on a 170-mile run (A14, M6 Corley smartification and M6J13 for 19miles of smartification).

We won't be back from California until Monday Dec 16th, so will miss the first week of the A14. Hope your gathering goes well.

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kiran_mk2
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Re: A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon "news"

Post by kiran_mk2 »

I work next to the Godmanchester junction and I think I will book the first day off work. The traffic will be a nightmare and I suspect that if the old A14 is closed between Godmanchester and Spittals, the traffic around Godmanchester will be jammed by people turning around at the 'end of the old A14' junction because they didn't realise the road wouldn't still go to the A1.
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Re: A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon "news"

Post by Moore_O »

kiran_mk2 wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2019 09:26 I work next to the Godmanchester junction and I think I will book the first day off work. The traffic will be a nightmare and I suspect that if the old A14 is closed between Godmanchester and Spittals, the traffic around Godmanchester will be jammed by people turning around at the 'end of the old A14' junction because they didn't realise the road wouldn't still go to the A1.
Is that right? I was in Huntingdon on Monday - the works in Hinchingbrooke/Mill Common look a LONG way off finishing... are they actually going to sever the old route as soon as the new route is available?
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Re: A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon "news"

Post by Chris5156 »

kiran_mk2 wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2019 09:26 I work next to the Godmanchester junction and I think I will book the first day off work. The traffic will be a nightmare and I suspect that if the old A14 is closed between Godmanchester and Spittals, the traffic around Godmanchester will be jammed by people turning around at the 'end of the old A14' junction because they didn't realise the road wouldn't still go to the A1.
I expect the bigger problem will be people coming southbound and finding the A14 is not where it used to be.

Northbound, if you stay on the A14 it will carry you straight onto the new bypass and over to the A1. Southbound, on the A1, all traffic for the A14 is used to leaving at Alconbury, and anyone following a satnav or taking the route they usually take will come off as usual and get as far as Huntingdon before finding they've gone the wrong way.

The biggest difficulty, once this scheme is open, will be persuading southbound traffic on the A1(M) that they need to stay on the A1 a bit longer if they're heading to Cambridge.
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Re: A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon "news"

Post by rasingram2 »

Chris5156 wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2019 11:07
kiran_mk2 wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2019 09:26 I work next to the Godmanchester junction and I think I will book the first day off work. The traffic will be a nightmare and I suspect that if the old A14 is closed between Godmanchester and Spittals, the traffic around Godmanchester will be jammed by people turning around at the 'end of the old A14' junction because they didn't realise the road wouldn't still go to the A1.
I expect the bigger problem will be people coming southbound and finding the A14 is not where it used to be.

Northbound, if you stay on the A14 it will carry you straight onto the new bypass and over to the A1. Southbound, on the A1, all traffic for the A14 is used to leaving at Alconbury, and anyone following a satnav or taking the route they usually take will come off as usual and get as far as Huntingdon before finding they've gone the wrong way.

The biggest difficulty, once this scheme is open, will be persuading southbound traffic on the A1(M) that they need to stay on the A1 a bit longer if they're heading to Cambridge.
They will be able to turn right at Spittals, or when the road is complete get onto the A1514 at the end of the link road, and go to Brampton Hut. With some backup signs at each of these junctions, hopefully it will be a mistake people only make once.
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Re: A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon "news"

Post by Johnathan404 »

kiran_mk2 wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2019 09:26 I work next to the Godmanchester junction and I think I will book the first day off work. The traffic will be a nightmare and I suspect that if the old A14 is closed between Godmanchester and Spittals, the traffic around Godmanchester will be jammed by people turning around at the 'end of the old A14' junction because they didn't realise the road wouldn't still go to the A1.
Very wise. The first week of a new road layout, no matter how well-publicised the change or how clear the signs are, is always chaotic. Look forward to newspaper headlines about "red-faced highways chiefs".
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KeithW
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Re: A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon "news"

Post by KeithW »

Chris5156 wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2019 11:07
I expect the bigger problem will be people coming southbound and finding the A14 is not where it used to be.

Northbound, if you stay on the A14 it will carry you straight onto the new bypass and over to the A1. Southbound, on the A1, all traffic for the A14 is used to leaving at Alconbury, and anyone following a satnav or taking the route they usually take will come off as usual and get as far as Huntingdon before finding they've gone the wrong way.

The biggest difficulty, once this scheme is open, will be persuading southbound traffic on the A1(M) that they need to stay on the A1 a bit longer if they're heading to Cambridge.
I would hope the humongous signs on the A1(M) approaching Alconbury will be appropriately set to make it clear.
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Re: A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon "news"

Post by Alderpoint »

KeithW wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2019 12:25
Chris5156 wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2019 11:07 The biggest difficulty, once this scheme is open, will be persuading southbound traffic on the A1(M) that they need to stay on the A1 a bit longer if they're heading to Cambridge.
I would hope the humongous signs on the A1(M) approaching Alconbury will be appropriately set to make it clear.
Apparently those signs are already in place and ready to be uncovered. Dunno how big they are!

Anything which ignores those signs will find they don't get very far as the old road will be closed at Huntingdon north (current j23).
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Re: A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon "news"

Post by darkcape »

Moore_O wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2019 09:40
kiran_mk2 wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2019 09:26 I work next to the Godmanchester junction and I think I will book the first day off work. The traffic will be a nightmare and I suspect that if the old A14 is closed between Godmanchester and Spittals, the traffic around Godmanchester will be jammed by people turning around at the 'end of the old A14' junction because they didn't realise the road wouldn't still go to the A1.
Is that right? I was in Huntingdon on Monday - the works in Hinchingbrooke/Mill Common look a LONG way off finishing... are they actually going to sever the old route as soon as the new route is available?
From what I hear the old road will be signed and status set to closed to force satnavs etc to redirect traffic, as no matter how many signs you put up on A1 people will still ignore. But physically it will be able to open up if congestion gets too bad in Huntingdon for a week or two until things simmer down
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Berk
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Re: A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon "news"

Post by Berk »

It seems bizarre to physically close the old road to local traffic (yes, I realise it could still attract long-distance traffic as well) before the demolition works are ready to start.

Altering the sat-navs early is fair game though. Probably not soon enough (given how few updates some people download).
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Re: A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon "news"

Post by Andy33gmail »

At least this way, if it turns out traffic can’t cope with the viaduct closure, we’ll know about it before it’s too late. Whether the powers that be would change their plans in that eventuality ... who knows
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Re: A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon "news"

Post by Berk »

I’m still very sceptical about the Brampton Road-only option.

Would building a new bridge on the same level as Brampton Road have been too hard to do?? Make a longabout where both roads meet?? :?:

From the SABRE Wiki: longabout :


A longabout is a form of dumbbell roundabout junction where the link road connecting the two roundabouts is dual carriageway and the central reservation of the link road joins up with either or both of the centre islands. They are often used to avoid having two separate roundabouts close to each other on a main road where the side roads have relatively low flows.

Examples of longabouts can be found at:

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DB617
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Re: A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon "news"

Post by DB617 »

Setting roads to closed is great for connected sat navs and phone apps (perhaps with the exception of Apple Maps), showing up pretty much a day later in my experience while actual changes take months, so that should do the trick. For anyone using a modern system of course. Until recently my company used 'dumb' sat navs that had to be put on a computer to update, so most were never done. Might cause some weird diversions for people following satnav to Huntingdon, though.
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Re: A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon "news"

Post by KeithW »

Alderpoint wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2019 13:04
Apparently those signs are already in place and ready to be uncovered. Dunno how big they are!

Anything which ignores those signs will find they don't get very far as the old road will be closed at Huntingdon north (current j23).
The gantries are large enough for them to be pretty big.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.38878 ... authuser=0


At J23 they can be redirected back to the A1 which used to happen anyway if there were closures on the old A14 between there and Godmanchester as traffic was diverted along the A1/A428
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Re: A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon "news"

Post by B1040 »

Travelling South from Alconbury, the signage looks as if the new road is already open.
Fortunately, I both knew that the road was not open, and wanted to go somewhere else.
It's probably a road I will never drive along with purpose.
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Re: A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon "news"

Post by kiran_mk2 »

So not all the planned changes have happened over the weekend. The eastbound Dry Drayton/Oakington slip road is still open and as a result the new Bar Hill eastbound on-slip is not a lane gain. This has resulted in an unexpectedly short merging area that appears to have caused issues (I've heard rumours of accidents). Also, the ridiculous entry merge at Bar Hill westbound still exists but is now ~50 m closer to the junction. Would it have been so hard for the main carriageway to use lanes 2&3 of the new road while the entry slip road uses lane 1 for a quarter mile (esp now the Lolworth junction is shut)?

Also, as expected the queue to leave the A14 westbound at Dry Drayton (now the exit for Bar Hill) was pretty bad with cars queuing on the A14 and over the bridge.
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Re: A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon "news"

Post by ManomayLR »

If I am travelling northbound on the A1 approaching Brampton Hut, how do I access the A14 bypass? Or must I use the LAR?
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Re: A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon "news"

Post by kiran_mk2 »

Come off at Brampton Hut and rejoin the A1 southbound - from there you can join the new A14 (from December 9th at least).
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