As part of the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon Improvement Scheme the new road alignment necessitated the crossing of the River Great Ouse and the associated flood plain. The area to be crossed also formed part of the country wildlife site and involved works with key stakeholders such as the Environment agency and landowners. In order to achieve this the original outline design for the scheme detailed a 1km long viaduct.
As part of the early contractor involvement phase of the project the construction team looked at a number of options for the River Great Ouse Viaduct in order to find the most efficient and buildable design within the constraints of the project and Highways England’s desire to hit challenging efficiency targets. The drive to find an efficient and buildable solution led the construction team into reviewing and analysing the construction methods that would typically be used to build a viaduct of this size.
The resulting output of the ECI phase of the project resulted in the design for the RGOV being a 750m long 17 span viaduct with a composite, steel and concrete, deck. By incorporating the composite deck within the design this allowed the construction team to proposes and ultimately implement an offsite manufacturing process for the concrete elements of the deck.
