The opening of the new 12-mile stretch of the A14 Huntingdon Southern Bypass earlier this week (09 December) has been welcomed by the local office of Barker Storey Matthews – now part of national chartered surveyors, Eddisons – in marking a significant milestone in the road improvement programme whose next key stage will bring even more benefits to the town, according to the firm’s property agency team.
The next major phase, progressing next year (2020), will see the existing A1 roadway between Brampton Hut and Brampton integrated to the new bypass as a new route is constructed to the west of this existing part of the A1. Additional work to remove the Huntingon viaduct, which bisects the town, is scheduled to begin next year too.
While acknowledging that every phase of the £1.5 billion investment programme to upgrade the A14 and the local road network serves to enhance the business profile of Huntingdon and bring attendant economic benefits, Barker Storey Matthews is keenly anticipating the imminent shift of the focus of the works programme which will culminate in the removal of the town’s flyover landmark.
Richard Adam, Director, Barker Storey Matthews, explained, “Businesses and residents know that the beefed-up A14, A1 and local road network will benefit travel times and transport communications links east to west and onward links north to south around the town.
“Ahead of the start of the A14 programme in 2016, many property investors and developers, who always look to the long term, had already secured a stake in the future prosperity of the town and the surrounding district.
“Setting aside the inevitable inconveniences in the short term, the concentration of A14 works next year to enhance those already completed with the opening of the Huntingdon Southern Bypass is to be welcomed.
“It means we are edging ever closer to the end of the whole programme which, for Huntingdon, will be signified by the physical removal of the viaduct. This can only further improve the desirability of Huntingdon as a commercial location.”
