People living along the A14 in Huntingdonshire are being invited to apply for grants of up to £10,000 ahead of the £1.8billion upgrade work which is scheduled to begin later this year.

The A14 Community Fund, a series of grant rounds worth up to £10,000 per project, will be awarding money over the next two years for community projects across a wide range of areas including the environment, health and well-being, heritage, arts, skills, and culture.

The team is inviting project proposals for the first round of grants.

Ideas are invited from across the communities and from a range of not for profit organisations such as schools, community groups, and parishes and clubs, who are delivering charitable projects with public benefit.

Gerard Smith, from Highways England, said: “The construction of the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme will have a lasting impact on communities that live around it, opening up opportunities for positive initiatives to the benefit of everyone in the area.

“This fund will help to kick-start those opportunities and ensure that the new A14’s legacy will go way beyond that of a normal road improvement project.

“We want to work with local communities to make the most of these opportunities and ensure we leave behind a positive legacy once the project is completed”.

The 21-mile A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme is on schedule to start construction in late 2016. The scheme will include a major new bypass of Huntingdon between Swavesey and Brampton, widening the A1 between Brampton and Alconbury, widening the existing A14 between Swavesey and Milton and improving the junctions at Bar Hill, Swavesey, Girton, Histon and Milton. There will also be improvements in Huntingdon Town Centre to include the demolition of the A14 viaduct and a new local access road.

Archaeology surveys are ongoing and preparation work to build some of the compounds will start shortly.

The new bypass and widened A14 will open to traffic in 2020.

For the latest information about the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme, visit www.highways.gov.uk/A14C2H, or search #A14C2H and follow @HighwaysEAST on Twitter.