Highways England has opened a new 12-mile bypass from Ellington to Swavesey. Credit: Highways England.

UK Government-owned Highways England has opened the 12-mile A14 Huntingdon Bypass from Ellington to Swavesey in Cambridgeshire, the UK.

The upgrade is part of a £1.5bn project to refurbish 21 miles of the A14, from Cambridge to Huntingdon.

Highways England updated the numbers of junctions on the A14 from Ellington to Bar Hill.

Highways England project director David Bray stated: “Opening the Huntingdon Southern Bypass is a huge achievement in the delivery of this major road upgrade and I’d like to thank road users, residents and stakeholders for their patience and support during construction.

“Opening the new bypass will start to unlock many of the project’s benefits and, together with the upgraded section of the A1 between Alconbury and Buckden, which opened earlier this year, means the western section of the transformed A14 is essentially complete.”

Highways England also closed the old bypass on both ends between Godmanchester and the Spittals interchanges to remove the current viaduct and construct new link roads connecting Huntingdon’s town centre.

The work is expected to be fully complete in 2022. After the opening, the new road layout will connect to the old A14 in and out of Huntingdon.

In October, Highways England announced plans to widen a 15-mile section of the A12 route that connects the East of England and London.

Highways England recently also revealed plans to use drone technology to monitor the progress of upgrade work on UK motorways.

In September, Highways England invested £78m towards road upgrades to boost safety at Junction 10 of the M6 in the Midlands.