A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon "news"

[Berk]

the last slip road at Oakington has not just been closed, they ripped it completely over the weekend- A14 J30 is very much no more. Traffic now on new alignment between the Dry Drayton side roundabout and the bridge.

At what point do the new junction numbers become valid?? Already, I would’ve thought. There can’t be many old junctions still in place now.

Is the A1307 getting any numbers too??

[mikehindsonevans]

the last slip road at Oakington has not just been closed, they ripped it completely over the weekend- A14 J30 is very much no more. Traffic now on new alignment between the Dry Drayton side roundabout and the bridge.

At what point do the new junction numbers become valid?? Already, I would’ve thought. There can’t be many old junctions still in place now.

Is the A1307 getting any numbers too??

Every week, it seems, a new junction number comes "live" as the A14 project homes in on completion.

I suspect that "the locals" will use the old junction numbers for convenience, maybe for a generation, as they travel the A1307.

[M11(A14(M))]

There is still a sign on the A1307 heading eastbound that still has its junction number on it. Junction 27 for Fenstanton. Also near Fen Drayton there’s still a sign that shows the A1307 as A14.

[B1040]

Probably take a while for every single sign to go

[Berk]

That sort of thing is far from uncommon. I bet there’s still some A604 signs out there!!

[marconaf]

Silly question perhaps - I used to travel c2015-2018 to Norfolk via M11, A14 and A10. The section from M11 to A10 was pretty good and had clearly been recently widened. I think they may still have been finishing that in the early years? Ultimately I switched to A11/Soham as I was fed up of the congested A10 but the A14 bits worked fine I recall.

Anyway - I’ve started travelling to Cambridge and that entire section is of course still in massive rebuild as part of A14.

Were these different projects and why (particularly Westbound on the A14) is it getting rebuilt so soon after major work was done? Or have I missed something here?

On a similar note - the new A14/M11 junction and the westbound A14 flyover of the A428, seems to leave A428 westbound traffic cut down to 1 lane. It opens up again, but whilst I can see that is fine for current traffic, and probably even post Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet being connected woth DC- if the OxCam is built linking to M40, M4 etc then a lot more traffic would want to continue surely? Or is this a bridge to cross (rebuild!) another day?

[Berk]

The northern bypass has been subject to roadworks for some time now. Effectively this project has been delivered in phases over several years.

Even the northern bypass has been delivered in two distinct phases.

Due to the scale of works, it’s been a little hard to keep track of.

[roadtester]

Yes - the A14 between the M11 and the A10 was widened a few years back, but after what felt like a very short period of operation as a nice modern well-lit D3, it got caught up in the Cambridge/Huntingdon project, and it was back to cones, temporary lane markings and all the rest.

[marconaf]

Yes - the A14 between the M11 and the A10 was widened a few years back, but after what felt like a very short period of operation as a nice modern well-lit D3, it got caught up in the Cambridge/Huntingdon project, and it was back to cones, temporary lane markings and all the rest.

Ah ok that makes sense - it did seem like it was all done and working well hence my confusion.

The new Westbound A14 flyover leading from under the M11 bridge - that’ll be two lanes eventually I assume? 75% of A14W traffic seems to want to take that, 20% M11S and the residual A428.

Another silly question - what actually was the problem with the A14 where the M11 stopped?

AIUI, the M11 was D2 and the A14 and Huntingdon Rd joining it raised it to D3. Going West I went A428 or south on the M11 so never go caught, but traffic was always basically at a standstill on the M11 bridge north, and A14 West trying to get round that (dangerous!) 270deg slip road which was shared with M11N to A14E. That needed redoing desperately - but what was the blockage further up?

[Chris5156]

Another silly question - what actually was the problem with the A14 where the M11 stopped?

AIUI, the M11 was D2 and the A14 and Huntingdon Rd joining it raised it to D3. Going West I went A428 or south on the M11 so never go caught, but traffic was always basically at a standstill on the M11 bridge north, and A14 West trying to get round that (dangerous!) 270deg slip road which was shared with M11N to A14E. That needed redoing desperately - but what was the blockage further up?

Lack of capacity. The D3 section was very short, only as far as Bar Hill. Beyond that it was only two lanes wide, and the busiest two-lane dual carriageway in the country. It couldn't cope.

[Berk]

Like this, basically.

[doebag]

Another silly question - what actually was the problem with the A14 where the M11 stopped?

AIUI, the M11 was D2 and the A14 and Huntingdon Rd joining it raised it to D3. Going West I went A428 or south on the M11 so never go caught, but traffic was always basically at a standstill on the M11 bridge north, and A14 West trying to get round that (dangerous!) 270deg slip road which was shared with M11N to A14E. That needed redoing desperately - but what was the blockage further up?

Lack of capacity. The D3 section was very short, only as far as Bar Hill. Beyond that it was only two lanes wide, and the busiest two-lane dual carriageway in the country. It couldn't cope.

Plus lots of junctions, some sub standard with short slip roads. The concertina effect on traffic as lorries moved to lane two to allow joining traffic to enter, then cars blasting past up to the next hold up was bad.
When the average speed cameras were installed things improved slightly but it was still woeful.
I’ve been using the route A14/M11 since 1983 .

[KeithW]

Lack of capacity. The D3 section was very short, only as far as Bar Hill. Beyond that it was only two lanes wide, and the busiest two-lane dual carriageway in the country. It couldn't cope.

The old A604/A14 could have been widened, the first A14 improvement scheme basically proposed doing just that. However there were a lot of issues and some very dodgy junctions such as the flat tee at Lolworth. The road had been built after all as an online widening of the old A604/A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon at a time when the A45 from Felixstowe followed what is now the A428 to the A1 so it was carrying much more traffic than had ever been anticipated.

The ultimate bottleneck was the A14 Viaduct at Huntingdon which was not only D2 but deteriorating badly. When it became clear that retaining it was not possible that scheme was cancelled, officially in 2010 but by then it was dead in the water as the extent of the problems with the structure became clear following an inspection. Even retaining it for a limited period required the installation of an acoustic monitoring system. Basically poor construction had allowed run off water to penetrate into the sheaths for the steel reinforcing tendons leading to extensive corrosion. In addition the half-joints were in poor condition. In fact emergency works were required to shore up one section with external steel reinforcement where there was a real risk of collapse. There was no realistic way to fix it which is why it is now being demolished.

[trickstat]

And of course, the Spittals roundabout, where, to remain on the mainline A14, traffic had to TOTSO at a relatively low-capacity 2 lane roundabout.

[Al__S]

north/west bound, the extra lane between Girton and Bar Hill was effectively always a slip road- on for Huntingdon Road, off/on The Avenue, Madingley, off/on the Crematorium, off/on Dry Drayton, Off for Bar Hill - PLUS several private accesses.
In the final D4 arrangement, two lanes from the M11 will join two lanes from the A14, with the Huntigdon Road slip joining the A14 just before then. Between Girton and Bar Hill there are now no exits or entrances, and Lane 1 will be dropped at Bar Hill (which will have two lane sliproad).

It wasn't quite as mad eastbound (no crematorium, no Avenue, less private access) but again it'll be a lane gain at Bar Hill, splitting to two lanes each for the A14 and M11, with the Huntingdon Road exit just beyond that split.

[nowster]

A lot of the junctions on the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon were LILOs, some with Mr Floppy signs. The slip roads were very tight, some with recommended max speeds of 20mph.

[NICK 647063]

Lack of capacity. The D3 section was very short, only as far as Bar Hill. Beyond that it was only two lanes wide, and the busiest two-lane dual carriageway in the country. It couldn't cope.

The D2 A14 was busy but it definitely isn’t the busiest D2 in the country, for the D2 A14 on the busiest section past fenstanton in 2018 DFT has AADT of 65K I’ve checked the A1 at Darrington D2 and it says 72K for 2018, so I’m not sure what other D2’s we have that are busier.

[roadtester]

Lack of capacity. The D3 section was very short, only as far as Bar Hill. Beyond that it was only two lanes wide, and the busiest two-lane dual carriageway in the country. It couldn't cope.

The D2 A14 was busy but it definitely isn’t the busiest D2 in the country, for the D2 A14 on the busiest section past fenstanton in 2018 DFT has AADT of 65K I’ve checked the A1 at Darrington D2 and it says 72K for 2018, so I’m not sure what other D2’s we have that are busier.

I think in the case of the A14, though, the problem was a combination of volume and an incredibly messy, cluttered set-up as well, including three TOTSOs. Most of the A1 is far more straightforward in that sense

[crb11]

Yes - the A14 between the M11 and the A10 was widened a few years back, but after what felt like a very short period of operation as a nice modern well-lit D3, it got caught up in the Cambridge/Huntingdon project, and it was back to cones, temporary lane markings and all the rest.

Only J31-J32 (the B1049). J32-33 was at that stage promised as a future improvement (perhaps independent of the more major A14 work).

[TomJ]

Lack of capacity. The D3 section was very short, only as far as Bar Hill. Beyond that it was only two lanes wide, and the busiest two-lane dual carriageway in the country. It couldn't cope.

The D2 A14 was busy but it definitely isn’t the busiest D2 in the country, for the D2 A14 on the busiest section past fenstanton in 2018 DFT has AADT of 65K I’ve checked the A1 at Darrington D2 and it says 72K for 2018, so I’m not sure what other D2’s we have that are busier.

Without wanting to derail the thread, I found a couple of quick examples, through the first couple of places that came into my mind. I'm sure there are a fair few more elsewhere. Do bus lanes count towards a total lane count if they're always running? Because if not I can think of a couple more places in London which would also easily exceed 65K AADT.

Though not expressway standard, the D2 bridge on the A406 in Chigwell had an AADT of 106K in 2018.

Not sure if it counts, but the D2M section of the M11 between junction 8 and 9 also had an AADT of 67K in 2018 with it being up to 76k in previous years.