Opportunity
Joint venture contractor BAM Nuttall-Morgan Sindall needed to increase capacity and improve journey time reliability by providing an additional lane in each direction between junctions 7 and 9 of the A14 near Kettering in Northamptonshire. To maintain traffic flow for drivers, two running lanes had to be kept in each direction for the duration of the project.
Solution
We value engineered the design to retain and reuse as many existing assets as possible, including drainage, safety barriers and lighting within the central reserve. This reduced the cost and removed the need for additional traffic management phases which benefited the travelling public. The road was widened within the existing highway boundary. We used 3D BIM to highlight potential clash areas and find the most efficient way of using the limited space available. We introduced an innovative retaining wall solution, using concrete gabion structures filled with site won material to reduce the import of material.
As-built information on the modification of geotechnical assets was captured in Highways England’s (previously the Highways Agency) Geotechnical Database Management System.
Outcome
Our value engineering during tender and design saved £4.1M on a budget of £25.5M. Congestion has been reduced and journey time reliability improved.