Newly released drone aerial footage shows the progress that has been made at the Kings Dyke Crossing project on the A605.

The three-minute ‘flight’ over the project site clearly demonstrates just how much work has been done since Metro Mayor, James Palmer, ‘broke ground’ back in June last.

Speaking to members of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority Transport and Infrastructure Committee at their online meeting (6 January), Mayor Palmer said: “Progress has been good to date, and the project is currently on schedule.

“The main contractor, Jones Bros Civil Engineering UK, were appointed for the construction phase which commenced on 15 June 2020, and the scheme is forecast to complete and open to traffic in December 2022.

“Jones Bros have also managed to bring forward work within one of the construction areas, but that’ll require a budget amendment to bring funds forward from the next financial year into this year; this will be presented to the January meeting of the Combined Authority Board.

“There are still considerable challenges to overcome, such as the backfilling of the section of star pit to enable the bridge alignment.

“But those risks are being closely monitored by the contractor, and the project team who are responsible for putting mitigations in place.”

The Kings Dyke Crossing scheme is currently costed at £32m with the Combined Authority contributing £24.4m, or three-quarters of the budget.

The A605 is an important east-west route between the Fens and Peterborough and is identified as a strategic route for Heavy Commercial Vehicle traffic on the Cambridgeshire Strategic Advisory Freight Route.

The A605 provides connections to the A1(M) and the A47 via the Peterborough Parkway network, while the A605 between Whittlesey and Peterborough carries over 12,000 vehicles per day.

Currently, there are some 120 daily train movements across the level crossing; and the scheme’s objective is to remove this road-rail conflict.