How the A14 Upgrade was complete eight months early amid a global pandemic Opening eight months ahead of schedule amid a global pandemic, Highways England’s new A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme – their largest road improvement project to date – is a magnificent example of Britain’s road-building prowess. It took 14,000 people approximately 14M construction hours – the equivalent of almost 1,600 years – to the build the 33km stretch of the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme. The £1.5bn project – one of the UK’s largest infrastructure schemes – opened for traffic on 5 May, on budget, eight months ahead of schedule and in the middle of the global coronavirus pandemic which had brought the nation to a standstill since March.