£16m Nene Parkway and Fengate road scheme contracts awarded to council's highways partner

Peterborough City Council (PCC) has awarded two major road building contracts to Milestone Infrastructure, the private civil engineering company with which it has maintained a decade-long contract.

Milestone, which also counts Highways England and Cambridgeshire County Council among its clients, will deliver the council’s £9.3m A1260 Nene Parkway Junction improvement scheme as well as the £6.6m Eastern Industries Access improvement scheme.

Both projects are funded by Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA) money and won’t result in any-long term borrowing, PCC says, but there “will be short-term borrowing to fund the project throughout until the claims are met”.

The Nene Parkway scheme will see a third southbound lane added from junction 31 to junction 3 on the major road, south-west of the city centre, as well as a third lane on the A1260 The Serpentine northbound approach.

Other changes include a new footpath between Saltmarsh and the Phoenix School and improvements to the bike route between Shrewsbury Avenue and the nearby nature reserve.

The Eastern Industries Access scheme, meanwhile, will see road improvements to the east of the city around Fengate including a new mini-roundabout at Oxney Road and Newark Road, a new pedestrian crossing over Oxney Road, improvements to the Newark Road footpath and traffic signal upgrades throughout the area.

The purpose of this scheme is to mitigate the additional trips anticipated when the Red Brick Farm Site is transformed into an industrial estate, creating new jobs, PCC says.

Similarly, the Nene Parkway schemes aims to address the “severe levels of peak hour congestion” around the junction and improve walking and cycling options.

PCC leader Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald (Conservatives) said that the Peterborough is a “growing city” and that maintaining the roads will “keep traffic flowing” and “improve residents’ lives”.

Building work on both projects is due to start this summer.