A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon "news"

[Berk]

There’s also the A607 turn-off which will ultimately take you to Lincoln, or another way to Sleaford and Ancaster on the A153. And also another way to Boston, and Skegness via the A17 and A1121.

[roadtester]

I went past the old services at Lolworth today which famously suffered major damage when a truck ran into the filling station in 1998.

It was getting a bit dark but I think the Travelodge has now been demolished although the former Little Chef/Burger King building is still standing, albeit boarded up.

[KeithW]

I went past the old services at Lolworth today which famously suffered major damage when a truck ran into the filling station in 1998.

It was getting a bit dark but I think the Travelodge has now been demolished although the former Little Chef/Burger King building is still standing, albeit boarded up.

The Travelodge is set well back from road and isn't that easy to spot even in daylight. It was still open last October and as they are still taking bookings it still seems to be. I suspect it is being used by A14 workers as at a quoted rate of £84 per night its rather pricey. The catering building was Herbies American diner and was also still open last autumn. The website says its still open until 10 PM and the blog was last updated today.

[roadtester]

I went past the old services at Lolworth today which famously suffered major damage when a truck ran into the filling station in 1998.

It was getting a bit dark but I think the Travelodge has now been demolished although the former Little Chef/Burger King building is still standing, albeit boarded up.

The Travelodge is set well back from road and isn't that easy to spot even in daylight. It was still open last October and as they are still taking bookings it still seems to be. I suspect it is being used by A14 workers as at a quoted rate of £84 per night its rather pricey. The catering building was Herbies American diner and was also still open last autumn. The website says its still open until 10 PM and the blog was last updated today.

Interesting - it definitely still comes up on the Travelodge website but when I went through the process of trying to book it on a few random dates, it came up with "There are no properties we could find with availability".

Also, on Google maps, it comes up as "CLOSED" on satellite view and "Permanently closed" in red on the left-hand sidebar

https://www.google.com/maps/search/trav ... a=!3m1!1e3

Even if the building is still there and I missed it in the dark, I don't think the services site is any longer accessible from the A14 mainline anyway.

[nowster]

It annoys me when Google StreetView drivers have gone into lane 2 adjacent to a lorry on a dual carriageway and you can't see anything to the left of the view.

[KeithW]

Interesting - it definitely still comes up on the Travelodge website but when I went through the process of trying to book it on a few random dates, it came up with "There are no properties we could find with availability".

Also, on Google maps, it comes up as "CLOSED" on satellite view and "Permanently closed" in red on the left-hand sidebar

https://www.google.com/maps/search/trav ... a=!3m1!1e3

Even if the building is still there and I missed it in the dark, I don't think the services site is any longer accessible from the A14 mainline anyway.

Ah we are talking about two different sites ! I was thinking of the eastbound side which is actually listed as Swavesey. The westbound side, which I think of as Bar Hill has, along with the filling station has been boarded up since last year. It was in August 2018 when I drove past. Not surprising since as I understand it the Bar Hill slip road from will go through the site In fact I think I found some dashcam footage from from 14th Aug and while the view was partly masked by an HGV the filling station and BK were closed at that time.

[KeithW]

It annoys me when Google StreetView drivers have gone into lane 2 adjacent to a lorry on a dual carriageway and you can't see anything to the left of the view.

Its hard not to have that happen on the A14 as I found out when shooting dashcam footage in August last year

[roadtester]

A local news site has picked up on some great aerial shots of the scheme tweeted out by HE:

https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/l ... s-16080365

The Swavesey junction looks immensely complicated in its present state - I had a confusing experience with it last week. I hope its final form is a bit more streamlined.

[kiran_mk2]

Swavesy looks complicated at the moment because not only is the junction being altered, it is also the place where the carriageways splits between the new and old A14. What I'm surprised by is that the original roundabout on the south side will remain in place and Cambridge Services will get it's own slip road from the Westbound Carriageway - I wonder who is paying for that.

[DJ Mike]

Swavesy looks complicated at the moment because not only is the junction being altered, it is also the place where the carriageways splits between the new and old A14. What I'm surprised by is that the original roundabout on the south side will remain in place and Cambridge Services will get it's own slip road from the Westbound Carriageway - I wonder who is paying for that.

I was surprised when I saw that, because I was sure it wasn't part of the plans at one point. Maybe a late addition?

Either way that's a good thing - it seemed like getting to the services from the westbound carriageway was needlessly protracted!

[B1040]

A lot of motorists seem confused by the new 3 lane bit North of Buckden and don't pull over to the left. Mind you, Wooley Road must be a contender for "most insignificant road having a lane drop on a dual carriageway".

[trickstat]

A lot of motorists seem confused by the new 3 lane bit North of Buckden and don't pull over to the left. Mind you, Wooley Road must be a contender for "most insignificant road having a lane drop on a dual carriageway".

I assume people think there might be a lane drop at Brampton Hut.

[Berk]

...and the roadworks are still ongoing. I don’t expect them to finish before the end of the project.

[B1040]

A lot of motorists seem confused by the new 3 lane bit North of Buckden and don't pull over to the left. Mind you, Wooley Road must be a contender for "most insignificant road having a lane drop on a dual carriageway".

I assume people think there might be a lane drop at Brampton Hut.

You're probably right. I did the first time I drove through.

[Arcuarius]

...and the roadworks are still ongoing. I don’t expect them to finish before the end of the project.

...that's generally the idea, yes

[Berk]

Let me clarify that for you... as a subsidiary project, I would’ve expected the A1 works to have finished before the A14 mainline.

That means everything, comms, drainage, signage, Armco/central barrier/anything you can possibly think of. You could drive through the works zone near Brampton, speed limit in place, and no workers anywhere on the horizon.

Then again, “maintenance” works associated with a project can drag on, up to 18 months after the finishing date.

There were still nightly works on the A46 Newark-Widmerpool section 18 months after it was “finished”.

Do they only do an hour’s work every night or something??

[Chris5156]

Let me clarify that for you... as a subsidiary project, I would’ve expected the A1 works to have finished before the A14 mainline.

Why would you expect that? It’s one project. Everything is interconnected, and the A1 works are entirely dependent on the progress of the A14 works. I’d be surprised if one was completed in isolation from the other.

[roadtester]

I've had the chance to do the A14 between Milton and points west of the A1 in both directions in the last few days. Normally I only tend to see it in the dark but this time I was travelling in daylight, and I was able to get a much better impression of the overall state of the works.

While there's still a lot to be done, it's now possible to get a fairly complete picture of what the whole thing will look like when it's finished, at least as far as the online sections are concerned. The new bridges are in place, the junctions are taking on their new shapes and it is now possible to tell where the extra width is coming from on the online bit. It's also clear how/where the offline section leaves the current mainline between Cambridge and Huntingdon and rejoins it to the East of the A1 - and also to see how the offline section is shaping up as it snakes away into the distance.

It really is very impressive and on a grand scale.

I still wonder, though, whether it would have been possible to fix the whole thing for less money by having a shorter offline section and reusing more of the existing route, while still bypassing the viaduct at Huntingdon and the Spittals/Brampton Hut roundabouts.

Shouldn't complain, though - this should fix things for thirty years or more.

[c2R]

It really is very impressive and on a grand scale.

I still wonder, though, whether it would have been possible to fix the whole thing for less money by having a shorter offline section and reusing more of the existing route, while still bypassing the viaduct at Huntingdon and the Spittals/Brampton Hut roundabouts.

I think one of the early possibilities was for the route to skirt north of Wood Green shelter, i.e. with the diverge between the current 25 and 26, but this was dropped in favour of the chosen route. I suspect that given local access roads needed to be built, and the existing carriageways re-built on the on-line section, there probably wasn't a lot in it, in cost terms, of diverging sooner - it gets rid of the need to do pesky traffic management over a longer distance and also removes the complexities of what to do at Fenstanton, in terms of junction design/bypassing the village for LAR traffic.

It also allows for more in-fill car-dependent estates to be built at Godmanchester than a more northerly route would provide the opportunity for.

[roadtester]

I suspect that given local access roads needed to be built, and the existing carriageways re-built on the on-line section, there probably wasn't a lot in it, in cost terms, of diverging sooner - it gets rid of the need to do pesky traffic management over a longer distance and also removes the complexities of what to do at Fenstanton, in terms of junction design/bypassing the village for LAR traffic.

I was wondering about that - the apparently (relatively) uncomplicated way they are blasting along with the offline section compared with the complicated juggling/planning involved in operating on a live road with the online section presents quiet a contrast.