Vast 44m bridge installations plan at Bar Hill A14 site - video

Not just one but two colossal 1,000-tonne bridge segments, each an incredible 44 metres long, will be installed on the A14 at Bar Hill next month – meaning junction 29 will be shut between September 14 and 17.

“There is no space to safely watch the work taking place,” says Jack Tappin of Highways England, “but we will live-stream the work and share a time-lapse video afterwards.”

The live-stream link will be posted on the firm’s website. The £1.5billion A14 improvement project is Highways England’s biggest scheme currently in construction. The project includes a major new bypass to the south of Huntingdon and upgrades to 21 miles of the A14. Work on the upgrade officially started in November 2016 and the new road is expected to open to traffic by the end of 2020.

Meanwhile Highways England will close the A14 in both directions at Bar Hill between 9pm on Friday, September 14 and 6am on Monday, September 17. Access to Bar Hill over that weekend will be for local traffic only.

The build for the bridges has taken place at a fabrication yard less than 100 metres from the A14 and 200 metres from the location of the new bridges – they need to be close because the huge self-propelled modular transporter (SPMT) involved travels at less than 1mph.

The SPMT involved has a grid of 120 computer-controlled axles which rotate 90 degrees at the bridge section to lower the “transport bridge decks” one and two into place. The huge transporter, which requires a temporary tarmac to be laid for the journey, is controlled via a hand-held control panel.

A Highways England team will be available at Bar Hill Tesco on Monday (September 3) and on Thursday (September 6), from 4-8pm.

Details at highwaysengland.co.uk/A14C2H.