Wedoany.com Report-Dec.12, Skanska is progressing with the £1.4 billion A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet improvement scheme for National Highways, creating a new 16 km dual-carriageway link between the A1 at Black Cat roundabout (near Bedford) and the A421/A428 at Caxton Gibbet (near Cambourne) in eastern England.

The project upgrades the last remaining single-carriageway section on the strategic corridor between Milton Keynes and Cambridge. Current traffic averages 25,000 vehicles per day and is forecast to reach 35,000 by 2040, driven by housing and employment growth. The new dual carriageway is expected to reduce peak-hour journey times by more than one-third, improve reliability and safety, and remove up to 4,000 vehicles per day from local roads.

Key features include:

- a new three-level free-flow junction at Black Cat, allowing continuous movement between the A1 and the new A428;

- new grade-separated junctions at Caxton Gibbet and Cambridge Road;

- bridges over the River Great Ouse, the East Coast Main Line railway, and several local roads;

- dedicated provision for walkers, cyclists and horse riders, with safe crossings and reconnected rights of way.

Upon completion, the existing A428 will be reclassified as a local road serving communities between St Neots and Caxton Gibbet.

The scheme also targets environmental improvements, including biodiversity maintenance, better air quality and noise management for nearby residents, and enhanced active-travel connectivity.

Skanska has driven thousands of 1,300 mm diameter secant piles for foundations. National Pile Croppers has supplied heavy-duty hydraulic croppers and on-site support to meet tight programme deadlines.

National Pile Croppers director Lee Aston said: "There were many thousands of 1,300mm diameter secant piles that needed cropping, and the cropping had to be done to exacting and demanding deadlines which cannot be missed. This meant that not only that we had to supply the hydraulic pile croppers but also ensure that the croppers were supported in the field to the exacting standards required by the contractors."

The company deployed its 12.5-tonne heavy-duty CFA-linked modular croppers, which can be adjusted in 100 mm increments for different pile diameters using a dedicated lifting frame, ensuring efficient and precise cropping with minimal hydraulic interference.

Construction is scheduled to continue through 2027, with the new dual carriageway due to open in 2027.