A14 widening ‘will not reduce delays’
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By Ashleigh Wight
THE FREIGHT Transport Association (FTA) has said that a plan to widen a section of the A14 in Cambridgeshire is not enough to ease congestion on the major freight transport route.
The £7.7m plan, revealed by transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin on 8 October, includes widening the road between junctions 31 and 32 and installing three sign gantries across the carriageway.
The Department for Transport (DfT) hoped this would reduce congestion on the route that connects Felixstowe and Harwich ports with the Midlands. The FTA said these measures alone would not succeed in reducing delays.
Malcolm Bingham, head of road network management policy at the FTA, said: “Any improvement is welcome along the A14. Widening is an option, but could attract more traffic. If that’s the case then it needs more management.” The scheme is part of a £217m government plan to reduce congestion on Britain’s motorways and A-roads and is expected to begin in 2014. However, Bingham warned that widening the road would not only increase capacity for freight transport, but could also attract additional congestion from commuters.
Earlier this year the DfT announced plans to build a new bypass around Huntingdon to take some of the pressure off the route and suggested that tolling a 20-mile stretch of the A14 would help fund the new development.
The idea was criticised by the FTA. Bingham said: “It should be affordable. We’ve seen other roads that toll LGVs and it has to balance up in terms of congestion.”