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Ainscough Crane Hire has been appointed by the A14 Integrated Delivery Team to provide lifting services for a major road upgrade in the east of England.
Stretching for 21 miles, Highways England’s £1.5 billion A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon Improvement Scheme, which began in November 2016, is expected to take four years to complete. It is the country’s biggest road upgrade currently under construction.
The works include a major new bypass, 34 new bridges and main structures, road widening and improvements to junctions.
Working on behalf of Highways England, the A14 Integrated Delivery Team comprises Costain, Skanska, Balfour Beatty, Atkins and cCH2M.
Improvements to the A14 between the town of Ellington, west of Huntingdon and Milton junction on the Cambridge Northern Bypass, will relieve congestion by cutting up to 20 minutes off journey times, and better connect communities in the local area.
Ainscough will deliver mobile crane lifting support to the contractors for loads up to 1,000 tonnes. Principally serviced through Ainscough’s local depot in Cambridge.
Vince Ramsden, Regional Sales Manager at Ainscough said: “This is excellent news for our depot in Cambridge as it will enable us to re-focus our local resources on the project and deliver more value add services to the A14 Integrated Delivery Team.
“It will be a complex and long-running project which will require the range of capabilities and equipment we can provide. We very much look forward to working with the contractors to deliver the project.”
Almost 85,000 vehicles use the A14 every day, far more than it was originally designed for. A quarter of this is heavy goods vehicles, well above the national average for this type of road, highlighting how essential these works are.
The scheme will be open to traffic by the end of 2020, with some finishing work continuing into 2021.
Photograph courtesy of Tristam Mayes.
