Let us hope we are making progress. With the lost of the A14 improvements the guided busway is even more important. Buses have completed the first trial run on the final stretch of the Busway track through Trumpington Cutting – which means buses have now run on every section of the route. The first buses have run on the final stretch of the southern section, but there is still work for BAM Nuttall to complete before the route can be handed over to the Council. Buses also carried out preliminary tests on new traffic signals in Trumpington Cutting where buses will switch onto a section of single track guideway.
The Busway is expected to be handed over to the Council in mid-January when the contractors should have completed all the work. BAM Nuttall then has four weeks under the terms of the contract to fix all the notified defects on the project, including the six outstanding issues on the northern section of the route between St Ives and Cambridge. Council bosses are already making plans to fix the defects that have been stopping the Busway from St Ives to Cambridge opening after BAM Nuttall have had the four weeks they are allowed. The cost of rectifying defects will be charged to the contractor. BAM Nuttall was due to complete both sections of the Busway in February 2009 and the Council has deducted damages almost £14,000 each day – a total in excess of £8.3 million so far.
