Sort the A428 first

Published: 2:31 PM November 23, 2011 Updated: 4:22 PM November 1, 2020

THE headline in last week’s Hunts Post (November 16) that has prompted this letter was about sorting out the A14.

My solution to the problem would be, in the first instance, to dual the much-underused A428 from Caxton up to the A1. When this is done, traffic can be diverted from the A14 and north up the A1 the Brampton Hut to rejoin the A14.

Then the whole A14 section from Huntingdon to Girton can be upgraded by adding a lane to either side of the existing road and by by-passing the crumbling viaduct in Huntingdon.

We do not need some grandiose scheme to make that section of the A14 into some interstate super highway: we just need to keep the traffic flowing and reduce the appalling number of casualties on that section of road.

I’m glad that our MP Mr Jonathan Djanogly has said that “the guided busway is hardly going to make a pin-prick in reducing traffic volume on the A14”: that would be a �160 million pin-prick.

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The guided busway is a magnificent feat of engineering and has brought welcome numbers of visitors to St Ives and, we hope, increased trade in the town. But the busway is, from my observations, populated outside the peak hours by ‘silver surfers’ using their bus passes. Who pays for these ‘jollies’? We ratepayers I would guess.

I also see that the council has purchased a shiny new snowplough for a bargain price of �75,000 for the busway. Was that in the original costings? Will BAM Nuttall be paying for that?