£510m project to dual A10 from Cambridge to Ely backed

Plans also include a new Park & Ride and segregated busway from Waterbeach.

A study published this week recommends dualling the length of the A10 between Cambridge and Ely at a cost of more than £500million.

It is recommended along with a new Park & Ride at Waterbeach, with a segregated busway into Cambridge, improvements to several junctions, cycle paths and the relocation of Waterbeach train station.

The plan is being pushed by the county council, Greater Cambridge Partnership and the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority. Mayor James Palmer says he wants diggers to start building the road in the next few years.

The study was commissioned by the Greater Cambridge Partnership and carried out by Cambridgeshire County Council and consultants Mott MacDonald.

Cambridgeshire County Council's acting assistant director, infrastructure and growth, Bob Menzies, said:"Rapid growth in recent years has seen demand on the network surge, with roads, junctions and rail journeys frequently operating at capacity. This has led to peak-time congestion over longer periods, with the potential to hinder future growth with no action. It is vitally important though that we recognise that, as well as increasing road capacity, we also need new and improved rail, bus, cycling and walking solutions to solve the problem."

One of these solutions is another segregated busway that would feed into the GCP's vision of a future-proofed public transport network that could be navigated by driverless buses like those that are used in China.

Five options are on the table, all involve building a park and ride and busway, with one of: no A10 improvements, just junction improvements, dualling north of Waterbeach, dualling south of Waterbeach, or full dualling.

Dualling the length of the A10 returns the 'highest value of beneifts' at £760million over 60 years. The largest benefit-to-cost ratio is the option involving no dualling of the A10, but improving the junctions, at 3.558 to one.

Chair of the GCP Francis Burkitt told the Cambridge Independent:"This is a further important part of assembling the jigsaw of the 21st century transport arrangements for Cambridgeshire and the wider region.

"This link up to Ely and beyond is desperately important for the future growth of the area and as Cambridge's prosperity stretches further north this report is the first and necessary stage on our journey of deciding what to do and where to do it.

"Clearly dualling the A10 is important but that merely keeps people in cars, and the study shows that 79 per cent of people using the road are through-traffic, so for local traffic what we need is a off-road CAM metro route with a stop at Waterbeach and possibly going further north still, to Ely or Soham."

The public will be invited to give their views on the initial options for various cycling, walking, public transport and road-based solution improvements in and around the A10 during the summer.

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