Kings Dyke level crossing, Whittlesey

[Will Marriot]

Kings Dyke level crossing was a regular hold up on the A605 between the town of Whittlesey and the city of Peterborough.

Talk of building a bridge goes back to the 1970s. The original contractor Keir had been expected to build a new bridge for £13.6 million, top open in 2020, with money coming partly from the local combined authority.

Due to increasing costs in October 2018 the project saw an approved a budget increase of £16.4 million; but just months later Keir’s estimated costs soared to £39 million.

Subsequently the contract with Keir was terminated in 2019, and the work taken over by another civil engineering company. It eventually opened in July 2024.

Construction of the bridge meant an adjacent disused clay pit had to have some infill.



Lately there have been issues. Cracks have been found in the embankment and more recently horizontal movement seen.

Since around March this year (2024) a lane has been closed while the construction company investigate the issue.

The latest news is that the bridge may have to close if it gets worse.

Being the main road from the town it is a critical link and it was commented on social media that the level crossing should be reopened if this was the case.

From what I can see around process and cost that could never happen?

 

[TheBigD]

Deleted

 

[dk1]

Oh dear. Perhaps they should’ve just paid Keir and be done with it. You only get what you pay for after all in life.

 

[eastdyke]

Oh dear. Perhaps they should’ve just paid Keir and be done with it. You only get what you pay for after all in life.

True enough.

Cambridgeshire County Council seem to be rather 'unlucky' with some of their road projects. The Ely Southern By-Pass went overspent by I seem to re-call £13m or £21m depending on your 'budget' figure and that was blamed on 'tricky conditions'. Otherwise known as you pay for your ground investigations whether or not you do them.

Interesting interaction here between water / clay / deep excavations / fenland drains etc. oh and it's been raining a lot.
And a 70 degree embankment slope angle with underlying clay??

 

[Maltazer]

True enough.

Cambridgeshire County Council seem to be rather 'unlucky' with some of their road projects. The Ely Southern By-Pass went overspent by I seem to re-call £13m or £21m depending on your 'budget' figure and that was blamed on 'tricky conditions'. Otherwise known as you pay for your ground investigations whether or not you do them.

Interesting interaction here between water / clay / deep excavations / fenland drains etc. oh and it's been raining a lot.
And a 70 degree embankment slope angle with underlying clay??

The bypass was a case of planning to ask for forgiveness rather than permission - if the investigations had been more extensive, the final bill would have been the same but the project would likely have been cancelled instead!

 

[Magdalia]

Lately there have been issues. Cracks have been found in the embankment and more recently horizontal movement seen. Since around March this year (2024) a lane has been closed while the construction company investigate the issue. The latest news is that the bridge may have to close if it gets worse.

The Ely Southern By-Pass went overspent by I seem to re-call £13m or £21m depending on your 'budget' figure and that was blamed on 'tricky conditions'. Otherwise known as you pay for your ground investigations whether or not you do them.

I hope that Network Rail are paying attention with regard to proposed bridges at Ely North Junction.

 

[D6130]

The latest news is that the bridge may have to close if it gets worse.

What about the potential effect on the railway, should the bridge become unsafe? This is one of the - if not THE - busiest freight routes in the country....not to mention the affected passenger services.

 

[swt_passenger]

What about the potential effect on the railway, should the bridge become unsafe? This is one of the - if not THE - busiest freight routes in the country....not to mention the affected passenger services.

I’d expect as the description of the faults so far is all to do with the earth embankments, and the bridge foundations will have been engineered to a proper depth there’s very little risk to the railway. Closure of the route because an embankment fails doesn‘t automatically mean the bridge structure itself is at risk.

 

[TheBigD]

What about the potential effect on the railway, should the bridge become unsafe? This is one of the - if not THE - busiest freight routes in the country....not to mention the affected passenger services.

It's the embankment that is the issue, not the bridge.
The embankment between the railway bridge and the underpass is built on a old clay pit lake, and it is settling/moving/sliding/dissolving faster than expected, despite all the extra work done so far (reprofiling embankment, etc etc). See attached picture for the embankment.

(I did put more info in my earlier post but I was told to remove it)

 

[Will Marriot]

Cambridgeshire County Council seem to be rather 'unlucky' with some of their road projects. The Ely Southern By-Pass went overspent by I seem to re-call £13m or £21m depending on your 'budget' figure and that was blamed on 'tricky conditions'. Otherwise known as you pay for your ground investigations whether or not you do them.

Not to mention the guided busway... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-40726151 "Construction costs rose from the £87m agreed with the council, to more than £150m. Maybe cost overruns are just expected on government infrastructure projects... Total cost of the busway has probably now reached £200 million with the latest repairs and legal fees. "

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Oct 2024 ==

Interesting interaction here between water / clay / deep excavations / fenland drains etc. oh and it's been raining a lot.
And a 70 degree embankment slope angle with underlying clay??

And the pit is around 100ft deep at it's deepest point so needed a lot of material to back fill, which is why I guess they did the minimum required and used a steeper bank to support the road than they otherwise would of. The red bit shows how much was filled in.


have

 

[MikeWM]

Sounds a bit worrying for the railway too. Having had to do a rail replacement bus between Peterborough and Ely a couple of times recently shows just how useful the railway is (and/or how poor and indirect the roads are) around here.

--

Cambridgeshire County Council seem to be rather 'unlucky' with some of their road projects. The Ely Southern By-Pass went overspent by I seem to re-call £13m or £21m depending on your 'budget' figure and that was blamed on 'tricky conditions'. Otherwise known as you pay for your ground investigations whether or not you do them.

It does seem a bit bizarre ('who knew the ground in the Fens was a bit damp?') but in the end the bypass seems relatively good value even at £49 million. Anything that ends up less than double the original cost seems a bargain in the current climate. By comparison, £49 million barely gets you a couple of platform extensions on the railways nowadays.

--

Not to mention the guided busway... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-40726151 "Construction costs rose from the £87m agreed with the council, to more than £150m. Maybe cost overruns are just expected on government infrastructure projects... Total cost of the busway has probably now reached £200 million with the latest repairs and legal fees. "

...certainly the bypass seems reasonable value compared to this, where the cost more than doubled, not to mention the endless delays in completing it (and all the issues since). Plus they never (!) intend to disclose the full cost to the Cambridgeshire taxpayer, after all what business it is of ours, we're just the fools paying the council tax!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-65984129

Cambridgeshire busway's true legal costs remain a secret

More than £25m has been spent so far on legal disputes related to a guided busway, but the true cost to the taxpayer is to remain undisclosed.

 

[apinnard]

The old road is fenced off and has restricted access. Not sure if the crossing is still serviceable either. Last time I was in the box (over a year ago) the barriers were permanently up and lights flashing. I believe the rubber panels on the crossing itself have also been removed.

 

[TheBigD]

The old road is fenced off and has restricted access. Not sure if the crossing is still serviceable either. Last time I was in the box (over a year ago) the barriers were permanently up and lights flashing. I believe the rubber panels on the crossing itself have also been removed.

Regarding the former level crossing...

Lights and barriers remain.
Barriers secured in the down position.
Railway line has been fenced off with palacade fencing, and the entrance to the road from the Whittlesey end is now gated.
The actual crossing over the tracks has been removed but the weybeams that the panels rested on are still there, albeit damaged.
Some of the tarmac beyond the fence was removed during the installation of the fencing.

 

[DaveHarries]

It's the embankment that is the issue, not the bridge. The embankment between the railway bridge and the underpass is built on a old clay pit lake, and it is settling/moving/sliding/dissolving faster than expected, despite all the extra work done so far (reprofiling embankment, etc etc). See attached picture for the embankment.

Given all this hassle, and regardless of the hold-ups to road traffic, I think it would have made more sense to leave things as they were rather than spend millions of pounds on a diversion: frankly I am always happy to wait a minute or two.

Dave

 

[apinnard]

Given all this hassle, and regardless of the hold-ups to road traffic, I think it would have made more sense to leave things as they were rather than spend millions of pounds on a diversion: frankly I am always happy to wait a minute or two.

Dave

Out of interest, did you ever see the length of the queues before the bypass was put in?

 

[Magdalia]

Thanks. Here is a BBC report which says that remedial work will take place this summer but with lane closure continuing until September.

Whittlesey to Peterborough bridge lane closure continues

Cracks were seen on the bridge connecting Whittlesey to Peterborough last summer.

www.bbc.co.uk

Residents face another five months of disruption after a council said work to repair a cracked bridge would continue.

The £32m King's Dyke bridge, which connects Peterborough and Whittlesey over the Peterborough-Ely railway line, was opened in 2022 to ease traffic caused by a level crossing.

However it was partially closed last June, two years after it opened, after cracks were spotted in the westbound carriageway.

Cambridgeshire County Council said the lane closure would remain in place and it planned to start remedial work on the site in May, which should be completed in September.

 

[Will Marriot]

The story has also been covered recently by Auto Shenanigans Youtube channel: