Contractor Skanska will handle a road widening project worth £507 million in the UK in partnership with Mott Macdonald. The project is for the upgrading of a stretch of the A428 to dual carriageway status and the work includes improving a number of junctions along the route. Highways England is the client for the project and awarded the construction contract to Skanska, while Mott Macdonald will carry out the design portion. Skanska says that it won the work through the Highways England Regional Delivery Partnership (RDP) framework, for which it is a Delivery Integration Partner for the East of England and Midlands regions.
The work will see the road being widened along a 16km stretch between Black Cat and Caxton Gibbet, helping improve journeys between Cambridge and Milton Keynes and reducing journey times for drivers. Part of the A428 has already being widened to dual carriageway status and this will extend the upgrade, providing an improved connection to the important A1 route. The work is due for completion by 2026.
Lee Galloway, Highways England A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet Improvements Interim Project Director, said: “The A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet improvements scheme will transform one of the busiest road links in the East of England, helping to save drivers who live, work and travel in and around Bedfordshire and Cambridge an hour-and-a-half on their journeys every week. We’re extremely excited to be working alongside Skanska as we move through the design stages of this project and onto starting main construction.”
A number of junction improvements will also be made, including a new three-tier junction at Black Cat roundabout allowing free flowing traffic onto the A1 and the new dual carriageway.
Around 25,000 vehicles travel on the A428 between Cambridge Road and Caxton Gibbet every day. With considerable local housing and job growth expected, this number is likely to increase to around 33,000 vehicles by 2040.
