B1428

This article is about the current B1428 near St Neots.
For the former B1428 in Hull, see B1428 (Hull).

Route

The B1428 crosses the River Great Ouse at St Neots Bridge

The B1428 follows the pre-bypass east-west route through St Neots, meeting the A428 at both ends.

The road starts at the roundabout where all the slip roads from the A1 meet and the A428 starts off along the bypass. We head north, however, along the Great North Road, initially through an industrial estate before reaching the houses of Eaton Socon. On the far side of the village centre we bear right at a roundabout onto St Neots Road.

We meet the B1048 at a roundabout and then continue through Riverside Park and over the River Great Ouse into St Neots itself. The road runs along the High Street - we meet the B1041 (which is only accessible to/from the west) and B1043 at traffic lights - and then start to enter the suburbs. After a couple of mini-roundabout we go under the East Coast Main Line (the station is to the north, accessed from one of the mini-roundabouts) and then pass a new housing estate to reach open country. A brief rural section takes us to the end of the road, at a roundabout on the A428.

Future

As part of the Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet scheme, the B1428 is planned to take the number of the former A428 east of St. Neots to Caxton Gibbet. It will multiplex with the A1428 for a short distance between the old and new bypasses.

History

The road dates to the construction of the then-A45 southern bypass in the 1980s, showing that although the B1428 number suggests that the road is a former section of the A428 the road's history is actually far more complicated.

In 1922 the road through Eaton Socon was the A1, following (as may be expected) the Great North Road. St Neots Road was numbered A1020 and then the road from Cross Hall Road eastwards was the A45. In 1935 the A1020 was renumbered as a spur of the A45; that, as well as the old A1 through Eaton Socon, then became an extension of the A428 following construction of the A1 bypass. The mainline of the A45 here never became part of the A428 but was renumbered straight to the B1428.