A1 Peterborough to Blyth

highways-a1-peterborough-to-blyth

Facts and figures

Over £454,000 saved through innovations to date.

The A1 Trunk Road is a north-south regional route of strategic importance connecting the two sections of the A1(M) at Peterborough in the south and Blyth in the north. Most of this length is of a satisfactory standard but there are localised problems at six roundabouts.

In order to reduce congestion, and improve safety, we grade separated the following junctions:

  • Blyth (A1/A614)
  • Apleyhead (A1/A614/A57)
  • Markham Moor (A1/A57)
  • Gonerby Moor (A1/B1174)
  • Colsterworth (A1/A151) and the junction of A1/B6403
  • Carpenters Lodge (A1/B1081)

Our contract with the Highways Agency, the first under a 100 per cent quality tender assessment, was for Early Contractor Involvement in the design and construction of six Grade Separated Junctions. All six work packages included the preliminary design process and promoted the scheme through the Statutory Planning process, including six Public Inquiries with successful outcomes.

Achievements

  • Cost savings, improved safety and buildability due to early Value Engineering between the client, contractor and consultant.
  • Innovative bridge deck design and installation improved safety and reduced cost and time by six weeks.
  • Minimised environmental impact by implementing a Construction Environmental Management Plan – Held environmental stakeholder workshops; undertook archaeological works and stripped, mapped and recorded findings prior to construction works; reduced lorry movements and balanced earthworks with reuse of site won materials minimising depletion of primary aggregates; constructed balancing ponds early to control silts and surface run-off during construction; completed noise calculations to minimise impacts on local residents; recycled and incorporated planed surface materials into the works; used primary ponds prior to balancing ponds and negated the use of oil interceptors; used grass surface water channels instead of concrete; planted 28km hedgerow and 20,000 trees and shrubs.
  • Traffic Management – Minimised congestion and disruption by providing information on roadworks, incidents, events and alternative routes. Improved safety through reducing traffic conflicts/turning movements by the conversion to grade separated junctions. Non-motorised users were catered for by separation, crossing points and dedicated paths.
  • Risk Management – Safety and environmental risk was proactively managed using internal risk assessment procedures, thereby minimising incidents.
  • Paraslim and Megashor equipment from our formwork and falsework specialist business, RMD Kwikform, provided us with flexible height setting and a stable arrangement along the line of the bridge girder ends so the wind load on the girder elevations was braced to ground
  • Throughout the project the local community and other stakeholders, including MAC 7, Nottinghamshire County Council, Lincolnshire County Council, Peterborough City, the Police, local schools, residents, farmers and landowners, were kept fully informed of progress and issues affecting them.
  • Integrated design and construction team in close proximity to the client.
  • Contractors budgeted costs within one per cent, KPI Cost score of 10.