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

  • Mabey Hire supports the Whorlton Bridge
    June 10, 2025

    Whorlton Bridge in England’s County Durham has had to be closed to traffic while a major programme of works is carried out. Every component is to be removed, refurbished and replaced.

    To facilitate the works, a bespoke catenary system has been installed, with Mabey Hire’s adaptable and modular propping equipment used to construct the temporary structure.

    Read More
  • Super job for a Demag CC 3800-1 without a Superlift counterweight
    July 4, 2019
    A Demag CC 3800-1 crane with an 84m-long main boom was recently set up in Germany without a Superlift counterweight to save space. The jobsite was the replacement of the old viaduct on the A45 Freeway that spans the Lahn River near Dorlar in Germany. Bietigheim-Bissingen-based crane service provider Wiesbauer solved the site’s space issues by using a Demag CC 3800-1. “This site required us to lift loads of 96-148tonnes at radii of 40-64m, so there was no option but to use a crawler crane in the 650tonne c
    Read More
  • Innovative, flexible bridge formwork systems
    February 14, 2012
    Innovative formwork systems have been used to construct a variety of bridge structures. Patrick Smith reports. As part of the work on Germany's new A4 autobahn near Eisenach, the contracting joint venture awarded the formwork contract for two of the three viaducts to Doka. What makes this assignment so special to the company is that although the two steel composite bridges each have very different cross-sections, the JV is using the same overslung composite forming carriage to pour the carriageway slabs of
    Read More
  • Korean bridge construction poses challenges
    April 5, 2012
    On South Korea's southern coast, an innovative highway sea crossing is providing many engineering challenges The new Busan-Geoje crosses from South Korea's second city to its biggest island and is slightly shorter than the 12km of the country's famous Incheon project. In addition the main cable stay bridge for the Busan-Geoje project has a 475m span rather than the 800m of the Incheon central span. However the 8.2km Busan-Geoje project faces perhaps greater technical challenges and also includes a second b
    Read More

Highlighted Content