Opening the £1.5bn major A14 upgrade programme 8 months early with Highways England’s David Bray

This month the Engineer’s Collective features Highways England project director David Bray talking about delivering complex infrastructure programmes, specifically the new A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon Improvement Scheme, which opened to traffic eight months ahead of schedule on 05 May 2020 during the Coronavirus outbreak.

The £1.5 billion A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon scheme will transform journeys on the A14 in Cambridgeshire, shaving up to 20 minutes off journeys and strengthen links between the Midlands and the East of England – vastly improving access to and from the UK’s largest container port at Felixstowe.
David Bray is the project director responsible for the programme and has a history of successfully delivering major infrastructure projects within complex working environments. He discusses in detail the need for investment in that part of the road network, how the integrated delivery team model was used on the project, and some of the big challenges faced by the team throughout.

David also addresses the Coronavirus pandemic and the impact on the scheme as well as the challenges of opening a scheme early and recommendations for other projects hoping to do the same.


The Engineers Collective is powered by Bentley Systems.
Read below about one of Bentley’s ‘going digital’ projects, entitled “How Going Digital is Bringing the Country of Malaysia Together”:
The government of Malaysia initiated a 16.15 billion MYR roadway project to develop and maintain a 786-kilometer-long four-lane dual carriageway to accelerate socioeconomic growth in East Malaysia. Going Digital with Bentley enabled the Government of Malaysia to develop and maintain a long awaited new highway connecting the states of Sabah and Sarawak, which will improve socioeconomic development and open up new opportunities for residents and local business. With a connected data environment and digital twins in place, Bentley’s products have been used in the entire lifecycle of the Pan Borneo Highway Sarawak project. The use of digital twins helped to achieve a sustainable asset maintenance and management solution that boosted efficiency, saving thousands of resource hours.
Find out how the Government of Malaysia is Going Digital with Bentley and learn more about the project by visiting www.bentley.com/en/goingdigital/roads/malaysia