St Ives-Cambridge Guided Bus: May open in December
The county council looks likely to have to fix the defects to the guided bus, but only when the southern section is finished... scheduled for about December time.
ALL hope of getting the St Ives section of the guided busway opened in advance of the heavily-delayed extension between Cambridge railway station, Addenbrooke’s Hospital and Trumpington has been abandoned.
And it now looks as if the entire project will be opened in December – the target date for completing the southern section.
The whole project – originally costed at �116million and backed by �92.5million of Whitehall funding, but now expected to have cost more than �160million by the time it is finished – should have opened to traffic last spring.
Instead, no progress has been made on six ‘defects’ notified by Cambridgeshire County Council to the contractor BAM Nuttall on the northern section of the guideway between Meadow Lane, St Ives, and Cambridge Science Park.
You may also want to watch:
Until the county council’s cabinet met on Monday and finally lost patience with BAM, the hope had been for the northern section – which should have opened in April last year, then September, then November – to enter service first after rectification of the six defects – which BAM maintains are not defects.
Now the cabinet has told officers not to waste any more time trying to negotiate an earlier start for the northern section – on the route of the disused St Ives-Cambridge railway line.
Most Read
- 1 Driver of fully laden HGV who failed breath test 'couldn't stand up unaided'
- 2 Super slimmer who lost one third of her body weight crowned woman of year
- 3 It's snowing! Send us your snow photos
- 4 Covid-19 numbers in Fenland higher than rest of county
- 5 Hunts police called to 'numerous breaches' of covid regulations
- 6 Complaints as elderly people wait in freezing conditions for vaccine
- 7 Chief executive takes 'personal oversight' of inquiry into deputy leader's farm tenancy
- 8 Two weeks left to respond to proposed flight path over Huntingdonshire
- 9 Villagers call for action after 'worst floods in years'
- 10 Pair jailed after drugs and cash worth £184k seized in 'peaceful' village
Work on the southern section is going well enough for the contractors’ revised deadline of completion in December this year, though some sources close to the project believe it could be earlier.
St Ives Councillor Roy Pegram, the county’s cabinet member for growth, infrastructure and strategic planning, said: “Enough is enough. The contractors know exactly what they need to do to correct these problems but, despite making promises that they will complete the works, and even setting out a self imposed timetable for doing the jobs, they are just not getting on with it.”