A47 Guyhirn junction

We’re improving the A47 Guyhirn junction by increasing the size of the roundabout to ease congestion and cope with increasing traffic levels.

Start date February - March 2021

End date 2022-23

Cost Up to £25 million

A47 Guyhirn junction scheme layout

Latest updates

01 March 2021

Work gets under way

We started work in February on our project to increase the size of the roundabout at Guyhirn junction. We’ve started with our vegetation clearance adjacent to the Guyhirn roundabout at Old March Road, ahead of starting main construction work in March. We’re aiming to complete the main construction work in April 2022.

Road closures

For the safety of the public and our workers, we will need some road closures to carry out our work.

The table below shows the proposed dates and roads when we’re anticipating we’ll need to close the road to do our work. These dates are indicative, and we’ll confirm them closer to the time.

Location	Date
A141 March Road, Guyhirn	21 and 22 April 2021 inclusive
Guyhirn roundabout	23 April 2021
Guyhirn Bridge	1 May 2021
Guyhirn Bridge	1 June 2021
A141 March Road, Guyhirn	14 July 2021
A47 Fen Road/South Brink	15 July 2021
A141 March Road, Guyhirn	27 July 2021

We’ll carry out this work at night between 8pm to 6am because there are fewer vehicles on the road. This means there is less impact to road users. Traffic diversions will be in place when the road is closed - view the routes in the Traffic management section below.

Stay informed

You can read more about the project in our Winter 2020 information leaflet and find information about the traffic management in place in the section below.

You can also sign up for updates on this webpage or subscribe to a text messaging service by texting ‘A47Guyhirn’ to ‘88802’. This text service can be configured to your requirements to share key information with you about upcoming road closures or key construction work.

12 October 2020

Surveys have been completed

Survey work has now been completed. We are making preparations to start construction work in early 2021.
28 January 2020

Ground investigations and surveys

We will be undertaking ground investigations and survey works around the Guyhirn junction in February and March 2020 lasting for five to six weeks.

We aim to minimise the impact on the nearby community and environment during these important investigations, but there will be some drilling which may be noisy for those living nearby. Where possible works will be carried out during the day but as we have restricted access to the area directly adjacent to the A47, it will be necessary for us to carry out some works overnight.

Please be aware that this may increase journey times through this route.

The survey results will be used in the further development of our design to improve this junction.

Public information events will take place once the scheme design has been developed further.

See more updates

Project information

We’re improving the A47 in six places between Peterborough and Great Yarmouth as part of a £300 million-plus investment, including the Guyhirn junction.

We’ll be making changes to the Guyhirn junction between the A47 (Fen Road to South Brink) and the A141 (March Road) which is used by over 20,000 vehicles a day and experiences high levels of congestion. The junction improvements aim to reduce congestion, improve journey times and increase safety.

Our project on the Guyhirn junction aims to increase the size of the roundabout by creating two lanes on all approaches to the roundabout. This will include an additional lane over the existing carriageway on the River Nene Bridge. Towards the end of the project there may be an opportunity for us to carry out additional bridge maintenance on the River Nene bridge.

Following our Preferred Route Announcement (PRA) in 2017, we undertook a variety of technical and traffic surveys to help us finalise our design for the project. As part of this we made some changes to our design which means it now falls within the existing highway boundary. This means that we do not need to obtain planning permission as we originally thought, saving time and enabling us to start work earlier than planned.

With this scheme, we’re aiming to:

improve safety and reduce collisions
support future employment and housing developments
increase capacity at the junctions and improve traffic flow
reduce delays and make journey times more reliable
improve connectivity for local people living and working near the scheme
improve amenities for cyclists and pedestrians

A47 Guyhirn junction improvement - 13 March 2017 to 21 April 2017

During construction, our aim is to provide a safe environment for all those working on or travelling through our roadworks, while keeping delays to a minimum. To help that, we’ll have the following in place:

Narrow lanes

To keep traffic moving, we’ll keep all the lanes on the road open but reduce the width of the lanes so we can minimise disruption to motorists.

Speed limit

We will put in place a temporary 30mph speed limit through the roadworks for safety reasons.

Temporary roundabouts

We will install a temporary smaller roundabout at Guyhirn junction which will help keep traffic moving whilst we construct the larger improved roundabout.

Diversions for road closures south of Guyhirn roundabout

A47 west closed:

Head west on the A47 until the A1139. Join the A1139 and travel south to the A605. Follow the A605 and travel east until the A141 and head north until re-joining with the A47.

A47 east closed:

Head south on the A141 and then exit to the A605 and travel west to the A1139. Follow the A1139 heading north until re-joining the A47.

Diagram of diversions for road closures South of Guyhirn roundabout

Diversions for road closures to north and west of Guyhirn roundabout

A47 north closed:

Head west on the A47 until the A16. Join the A16 and travel north to the A151. Join the A151 heading east until the A17, join the A17 and travel east and then re-join the A47.

A47 south closed:

Head north on A47 until the A17. Join the A17 and travel west until the A151. Follow the A151 West to the A16, join the A16 and travel south until you re-join the A47.

Diagram of diversions for road closures to North and West of Guyhirn roundabout

Working hours

To allow us to complete our work efficiently and limit disruption to traffic, we’ll be working during both day and night time from Mondays to Saturdays and occasionally on some Sundays.

Our daytime work hours will be between 7.00am and 7.00pm. Our night time hours will be between 8.00pm and 6.00am when there is less traffic.

Public footpaths

We will keep public footpaths open for walkers and cyclists, although we’ll need to make some slight changes to the existing routes.

Lighting

We will remove the existing streetlights and replace them with temporary lights throughout the construction period, to help maintain safety for all road users.

Noise

At times, some of our work will be noisy. We’re working closely with local communities who may be affected to manage this wherever possible, particularly around Old March Road. Towards the end of the project, we’ll build a permanent acoustic and light barrier at the south side of the roundabout adjacent to Old March Road.