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 scheme design

Visit our virtual exhibition

Latest updates

15 September 2021

Night working, 20 September to 8 October 2021

We will be working overnight on the A141 March Road, A47 Fen Road and A47 South Brink between Monday 20 September and Friday 8 October.

The work will include drainage and ducting work, building the road and laying new tarmac. The temporary barriers that are currently in place on the western side of the A141 March Road, A47 South Brink (eastern side) and the westbound A47 Fen Road will be removed and put on the eastbound A47 Fen Road and on the western side of the A47 South Brink.

During w/c 20 September and w/c 27 September, traffic will be controlled with 3-way traffic lights between 8pm and 6am each night. The A47 Fen Road will be full closed between 8pm and 6am each night from Monday 4 October until Friday 8 October inclusive for testing.

As an advanced warning, this testing to the north of Guyhirn roundabout will continue and as a result the A47 South Brink will be fully closed to traffic from 8pm to 6am each night starting from Monday 11 October to Friday 15 October inclusive, and Monday 18 October to Wednesday 20 October 2021 inclusive. We will be continuing to do our construction work during these road closures for testing.

We will try to keep noise and disruption to a minimum and to complete our work as quickly as possible. However, there may be some noise, for example from reversing bleepers which must be used on our vehicles for health and safety reasons. Similarly some operations may cause noise, for example, vibrating compactors and breaking concrete which are needed to complete the work. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
26 August 2021

Road closures, 31 August to 17 September 2021

We will be carrying out overnight work on A141 March Road, A47 Fen Road and A47 South Brink between Tuesday 31 August and Friday 17 September. The work will include drainage and installing ducting. There will be 3-way traffic lights between 8pm and 6am overnight. The roads will be open but please allow a little extra time for your journey.
10 August 2021

Meet the team

We’re hosting a virtual event on on Monday 16 August between 7pm and 8pm. This event will be a Microsoft Teams meeting where our team will provide an update on the works and be available to answer your questions.

If you’d like to attend, please email:

A47GuyhirnJunctionRIS@highwaysengland.co.uk to register, we’ll then confirm the booking and send you more information about how to join.
15 July 2021
July and August road closures

Now that the diversion of the Anglian Water mains is complete, we will be able to complete the eastern widening to the A141, including the installation of new drains, kerbs, placing stone and tarmac.

Additional lane closures and traffic lights are needed to allow us to surface this widened area. We will be doing the work during during dayshifts and nightshifts.

For safety purposes, we will need to have full road closures on the following dates:

July and August road closures
- Wednesday 28 July 8.00pm to Thursday 29 July 6.00am and Thursday 29 July 8.00pm to Friday 30 July 6.00am 2021: A47 South Brink from / to existing Guyhirn roundabout.
- Monday 2 August 8.00pm to Tuesday 3 August 6.00am 2021: A141 March Road from / to existing Guyhirn roundabout.
3-way traffic lights will be in place overnight each night from 8pm to 6am starting from Sunday 1 August until up to and including Friday 20 August.

The A47/Fen Road from/to the existing Guyhirn roundabout will remain open. A signed diversion route will also be in place.
06 July 2021

Progress report and July road closure dates

Our work has been progressing on site behind the temporary safety barriers that we installed at the end of May. The barriers have allowed us to do more work during the daytime.

We have done the initial phase of earthworks on the eastern verge of the A141 March Road, and we’ve been stripping off the existing topsoil, testing the existing ground and placing aggregates to form the new road. Additionally, on the western side of the River Nene Bridge, we have started to install new ducts for the diversion of utility pipes and cables, and the new pedestrian crossing across Fen Road.

We are working with Anglian Water to enable them to complete their water mains diversions, both along the eastern side of the A141 March Road/A47 South Brink and also on Fen Road, over the River Nene Bridge. The new water main pipes have been laid and tested and the final connections now need to be completed to make the old mains redundant.

To do this safely, we’ll need to have overnight lane closures from 8.00pm to 6.00am between 5 July to 8 July 2021 inclusive. Traffic will be controlled with temporary traffic lights, so there could be delays, however all roads will remain open.

Once the water mains diversions are complete, we will be able to complete the eastern widening to the A141 including the installation of new drains, kerbs, placing stone and tarmac. Additional lane closures and traffic lights will be needed later in the month to allow us to surface this widened area. A further update will be provided on this closer to the time.
19 April 2021

We value your feedback

Visit our A47 Guyhirn feedback tool to have your say. The tool includes an interactive map. You can click on a location to make a specific comment, or give us your general feedback.

You can also find out more about the project and upcoming our closures by visiting our virtual exhibition.

If you require a direct response, please email us at: A47GuyhirnJunctionRIS@highwaysengland.co.uk.
09 April 2021
Work gets under way

Project update

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 April 2021.

In April we started our overnight work on the A47 Guyhirn junction carriageway. This work included removing streetlights and modifying the current roundabout and crossing points. For safety reasons we have reduced the speed limit to 30mph and introduced traffic lights during overnight works. We remain on target with our planned works.

We’re aiming to complete the main construction work in April 2022.

In the meantime, we have launched a virtual exhibition area where you can find out more about the project and see regular updates during its construction.

Road closures

For the safety of the public and our workers, we will need some lane closures (8.00pm – 6.00am) between 12 April to 30 April 2021 inclusive. Traffic will still be able to use the junction and there will be temporary traffic lights and road markings.

During these dates we will be temporarily removing the existing ‘keep left’ bollard and the island kerb at the exit of Gull Road/A47. Removing these will allow traffic to turn right when the roundabout is closed for our work. Changing the turning out of Gull Road will help reduce congestion during the roadworks. In addition, we’ll put in safety barriers so that we can start removing the existing roundabout.

Overnight road closures

We’re now planning to carry out the following overnight road closures during May 2021:
- We will need to close A47/Fenn Road from the existing Guyhirn roundabout to Gull Road/A47 junction between 8.00pm and 6.00am over two nights.
- We will need to close the A141 entrance and exit on the Guyhirn roundabout between 8.00pm and 6.00am for one night.
- We will advertise the closure dates on signs at the roadside two weeks ahead of the closures to give drivers advanced notice.
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.

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.

Visit our A47 Guyhirn feedback tool to have your say. The tool includes an interactive map. You can click on a location to make a specific comment, or give us your general feedback.

You can also find out more about the project and upcoming our closures by visiting our virtual exhibition.

If you require a direct response, please email us at: A47GuyhirnJunctionRIS@highwaysengland.co.uk.