The UK’s A14 route is seeing a major upgrade

Work is progressing well on the project to upgrade the busy A14 route in the UK. A major milestone has been achieved with and important phase of the bridge installation having taken place. A 39m viaduct beam has been placed successfully for the bridge, which spans the River Ouse in Cambridgeshire. A key role in this work has been taken by the firm Cleveland Bridge UK. As part of Highways England’s £1.5 billion A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme, Cleveland Bridge was contracted by the A14 Integr
June 14, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
The A14 Viaduct being installed over the River Great Ouse
Work is progressing well on the project to upgrade the busy A14 route in the UK. A major milestone has been achieved with and important phase of the bridge installation having taken place. A 39m viaduct beam has been placed successfully for the bridge, which spans the River Ouse in Cambridgeshire.


A key role in this work has been taken by the firm Cleveland Bridge UK. As part of 8100 Highways England’s £1.5 billion A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme, Cleveland Bridge was contracted by the A14 Integrated Delivery Team (IDT) to design, fabricate and install a 750m viaduct bridge spanning the river and a large area of bordering flood plain on each bank.

Containing 6,000tonnes of steel and comprising 76 separate main girders and 800 cross girders, the structure was fabricated at Cleveland Bridge’s production facility in Darlington, County Durham before component parts were transported to site by road over a period of months. The majority of the main girders are 40m long, 2m deep and weigh 50tonnes.

The section of the bridge crossing the river has the longest span, so a complex series of girders has been installed to carry the weight of the greater load.

To enable the installation of the structure, including the most recent viaduct sections, a temporary platform was constructed under the length of the new bridge to provide a solid base for cranes and lorries.

However, to reduce time and site congestion, Cleveland Bridge utilised a 600tonne capacity crawler crane for the installation, which could lift all components for each section of the bridge from a single position at the side of the bridge. This meant fewer crane movements and no need to move the crane across the bridge footprint.

Chris Droogan, managing director of Cleveland Bridge UK, said: “The River Great Ouse viaduct is a showpiece element of the A14 project and is worthy of its place as one of Cleveland Bridge’s most significant structures in our history.”

“The viaduct will have a major impact on improving this part of the UK road network and we are very proud to have played a part in its development.”

Road Structures

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Mexico: underwater tunnel in Latin America
    May 8, 2015
    Mexico will benefit from an important new underwater tunnel - Mauro Nogarin writes. The city of Coatzacoalcos is located at the mouth of the river of the same name, in the Gulf of Mexico, 302km from the city of Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, in the east end of trans-isthmian corridor and at the southern end of Veracruz State. The city is seeing a key development as currently construction is 85% completed on the first immersed tube, underwater tunnel in Latin America. The reasons why experts chose this type of tunne
    Read More
  • IRF Global Road Achievement Award Laureate
    January 5, 2016
    As a key engineering project on the Changsha-Chongqing Expressway in Southwest China, the Aizhai Bridge, constructed by the Hunan Road & Bridge Construction Group, was opened to traffic in March 2012. The Aizhai Bridge crosses the 1000m-wide scenic Dehang Canyon at an elevation of 355m. It has a main span of 1,176m, making it the world’s longest canyon-crossing bridge in the world. The erection of the main girder (the stiffening girder) of the Aizhai Bridge encountered serious challenges, including a la
    Read More
  • Czech bridge sees world formwork debut
    July 23, 2012
    The Czech government is investing heavily in upgrading and modernising the country's top-tier transportation infrastructure. This year alone, building works with a total investment of over E1.6 billion are planned or underway on the Czech motorway and main road network. Completion of the D8 motorway between the Czech capital Prague and Dresden in the east of Germany has a high priority, and as part of this large-scale project, the contracting consortium of SMP and Metrostav is erecting the 585m long Prosmyk
    Read More
  • Building Spain's highest viaduct
    July 9, 2012
    Amid a mountain wilderness, a new highway system rises, featuring Spain's highest viaduct For years, motorists and truck drivers in northern Spain have had to endure using a dangerous road liable to traffic hold-ups, delays and accidents, and frequently impassable in the depths of winter. In any event it is a slow and tortuous climb from Molledo on the Cantabrian lowlands up the N-611 road through the Cantabrian Mountains to Palencia, on the Meseta, Spain's high central plateau.
    Read More

Highlighted Content