Secretary of state for transport Grant Shapps has signed the development consent order for National Highways to begin work on the A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet improvements.
As previously reported, Skanska was awarded a £507m contract by National Highways in March 2021 to design and build a new 10 mile dual carriageway to connect the roundabouts at Black Cat (the intersection of the A1 and A428 near St Neots) and Caxton Gibbet, 10 miles east.
Mott MacDonald is Skanska’s engineering design partner on the scheme.
National Highways has put the overall project costs in the region of £810m to £950m. With double digit inflation costs are certain to have gone up since then. It is aiming to start construction before the end of this year.
The project includes a new three tier junction at Black Cat roundabout to allow traffic to flow freely on the A1 by travelling under the junction and on the new dual carriageway over the junction.
There will be new junctions built at Caxton Gibbet and Cambridge Road, connecting the new dual carriageway to the existing A428, and a new Roxton Road link to connect Wyboston and Chawston.
Bridges will be built over the new dual carriageway to carry Roxton Road, Barford Road and Toseland Road. There will also be new bridges over the River Great Ouse and East Coast Main Line railway.
National Highways project director Lee Galloway said: “This announcement is a major milestone, not only for the us, but also for the many local communities who have long campaigned for improvements, as well as our stakeholders who we’ve been working with for several years.
“Our proposals to upgrade the route between the A1 Black Cat roundabout and A428 Caxton Gibbet roundabout with a new 10-mile dual carriageway and a number of junction improvements are good for businesses and jobs, will improve safety and make journeys more reliable.”
Skanska’s project director, Willie McCormick said: “Gaining DCO consent is a massive achievement for the project. It involved four years of hard work, with over 100 people from the many organisations involved. I cannot thank everyone enough for their efforts, not only for their individual contributions but also for working together as one incredible team.”
Glennan Blackmore, operations director at Skanska added: “This is a great result and an important next step on the journey of the A428. I am immensely proud of the efforts from all of the integrated team that have collaborated fantastically to achieve this result.”
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