Highways Agency - Safe roads, Reliable journeys, Informed travellers

The Project

The project forms part of the improvement of the existing A1 between London (M25) and Newcastle. The overall length of the project road is 13 miles, of which the 8 miles section between Alconbury Interchange and Norman Cross is dual 4 lane motorway, with the remainder constructed to dual 3 lane motorway, except for the short length of A14(M) which is dual 2 lane motorway. 

Key Data

Length of Project Road	13.04 miles (21km)
Estimated Construction Cost	£128 million*
Contract Award	8th February 1996
Commencement	1 April 1996
First Opened to Traffic	31st October 1998
End of Contract Period	31 March 2026
DBFO Company	Road Management Services (Peterborough) Ltd
Type of Road	Motorway
Shareholders	Barclays Integrated Infrastructure Fund, Kellogg Brown & Root, Abertis Motorways UK Limited
Contractors	Ringway Infrastructure Services Ltd, Clearview Traffic (Golden River)

(* = Value taken from pre-qualification document)

Discussion

The A1(M) widening between Alconbury and Peterborough was one of the first privately financed road contracts let by the Highways Agency.

RMS are responsible for raising finance to construct, operate and maintain the motorway for a period of 30 years.  In return they receive payments from the Agency in the form of a "Shadow Toll" relative to road usage. There is no direct toll payment by the road user.

During the course of the construction of the 21km section of motorway, 2.73 million cubic yards (2.5 million cubic metres) of earth were excavated to form embankments and landscape mounds; 15 bridges and 40 sign gantries were built and over 1.09 million square yards (one million square metres) of surfacing laid. Some 400,000 trees and shrubs have been planted.

The new A1(M) also includes advanced communications systems featuring state-of-the-art traffic control devices for flow monitoring, incident detection and automatic signalling to drivers.

The whole length of the project road is lit using fully cut-off lanterns which direct the light down to the road surface and minimise light pollution to adjacent properties.

The construction has resulted in improvements in road safety and overall reductions in the level of noise in the villages of Alconbury, Sawtry and Stilton.

The old A1 southbound carriageway has been detrunked and now forms a two way local service road and an alternative route for non-motorway traffic. It segregates local and long distance traffic thus promoting free flow and preserving the high capacity of the motorway.

RMS are currently assisted in the day to day management of the maintenance operations by Mouchel Parkman with Ringway Infrastructure Services carrying out maintenance work under a term contract arrangement.

The Highways Agency retains ownership of the road and has appointed consultant Atkins to monitor RMS performance as Department's Representative.