Cambridge Roadworks: Trumpington Road and Barton Road Nights

Cambridge is a small medieval city with a ring of park and ride sites around it, a bus gate in the middle of its busiest high street, and a county council that does most of its resurfacing between nine at night and five in the morning. If you drive here, three things decide your day: what is dug up, whether your route crosses Mill Road bridge, and where you are going to leave the car.

This page keeps the dated Cambridge roadworks at the top and the permanent picture underneath. Everything below comes from the county council’s own schedule, from the statutory traffic orders it advertises in the Cambridge News, and from National Highways.

What is closed right now

One county council resurfacing scheme is still running in the city.

Trumpington Road, between Brooklands Avenue and Long Road, is closed 9pm to 5am with a signed diversion. It started on 1 September with four weeks allowed, so it runs to about the end of the month. It is one of the two main southern approaches into the city, and it is the closure that hurts.

Round Church Street has finished. It was a two-week job from 1 September, and the pedestrian route past Round Church Street and Park Street reopened on 14 September. Coronation Street reopened on 17 September after three days of fire hydrant repairs.

That leaves two restrictions in force on city streets, plus one that is now permanent.

The Adams Road order is not roadworks. The county council made it on 11 September and it came into operation on 17 September, putting double yellow lines along most of both kerbs between Grange Road and Wilberforce Road. Anyone who wants to challenge it has six weeks from 11 September to apply to the High Court.

Motorway and trunk road nights

National Highways publishes a seven day closure report as a spreadsheet, reissued twice a day on weekdays. The edition it is serving today covers Thursday 17 to Wednesday 23 September. These are the entries that matter around Cambridge, all overnight.

Tonight, Friday 18 September

• M11 northbound, junction 9 to the A11 at Fourwentways, fully closed 9pm to 5am, for carriageway reconstruction. Junction 9 is the Duxford and Whittlesford junction. It was shut on Thursday night too.
• A14 westbound entry slip at junction 34 Fen Ditton, closed 8pm to 6am, for electrical works.
• A14 eastbound entry slip at junction 33 Milton and the eastbound exit slip at junction 34, both closed 8pm to 6am, for hedge and verge cutting.

Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September

• M11 northbound, junction 9 to the A11 Fourwentways roundabout, fully closed 9pm to 5am on both nights. That is the only closure on the Cambridge network this weekend.

Monday 21 to Wednesday 23 September

• A428 westbound, Hardwick to Cambourne, fully closed 8pm to 6am on Monday night only, for carriageway reconstruction. This is the main road west out of the city and the only full closure of the week inside the Cambridge travel-to-work area.
• A14 westbound entry slip at junction 34 Fen Ditton, closed 8pm to 6am on all three nights.
• A14 eastbound slip roads at junction 35 Stow-cum-Quy on Monday, junction 37 on Tuesday and the westbound junction 37 entry slip on Wednesday, all 8pm to 6am, under the same hedge-cutting scheme.
• A14 westbound, junction 22 Brampton to junction 13 Thrapston, fully closed 8pm to 6am from Monday 21 to Thursday 24 September. That stretch is well west of Huntingdon, but it is the route towards the A1 and the Midlands.

The Brampton to Thrapston closure has a published diversion, which is worth knowing before you set off. Motorway traffic leaves the A14 at junction 22, joins the A1 northbound and the A1(M) to junction 17 at Fletton Parkway, then the A605 westbound back to the A14 at Thrapston. Traffic that cannot use the A1(M) leaves the A1 at the B1043 in Alconbury and follows the A15 London Road towards Peterborough. National Highways says one further overnight closure is planned for the week beginning Monday 28 September, with the date not yet confirmed.

The same hedge-cutting scheme that takes the junction 21 slip roads on Monday and Tuesday also closes the A1 slip roads at Brampton Hut on Wednesday night, 8pm to 6am.

The A14 at Milton: the four-month order is in force

A National Highways order for the A14 between junction 33 Milton and junction 35 Stow-cum-Quy came into force on 24 August 2026. It covers resurfacing, waterproofing, bridge expansion joints, drainage, safety barriers and road markings, with the work expected to last about four months. It allows, 24 hours a day and with narrow lanes:

• 50mph eastbound for 950 metres from just east of the junction 33 overbridge, westbound for 1,500 metres from the junction 35 entry slip, and on the junction 33 eastbound entry slip
• 40mph on the stretches between those, eastbound up to the junction 34 Fen Ditton exit slip and westbound to just past the junction 34 entry slip
• closure of every layby between junctions 33 and 35

The notice is clear that the limits apply only where traffic signs show them. National Highways’ own maintenance schemes page still lists nothing between junctions 33 and 35 except the junction 33 to junction 34 technology improvements, an overnight weeknight scheme running from 8 June to autumn 2026. This week’s closure report again describes the junction 34 work as electrical. The order is legally in force, but we could not confirm today that the 50mph and 40mph signs are up.

The proposed A14 weekend closures have not started

National Highways gave notice on 3 September that it intended to make an order for drainage and resurfacing on the A14 west of the city, with full weekend closures, 8pm Friday to 6am Monday, starting on or after Friday 18 September and lasting about two months. The signed diversion would run via Brampton Hut, the A1 and the A428, rejoining the A14 at Girton.

That first weekend is this weekend, and it is not happening. The closure report for 17 to 23 September contains no weekend closure of the A14 west of Huntingdon, and no further notice has been published to say the order has been made. Treat the whole scheme as an advertised intention until National Highways lists a dated closure for it.

Starting in the next fortnight

Everything in that table comes from notices in which the county council states it “intends after 7 days to make an Order”. They are advertised intentions, so dates can move before the signs go up.

October: a long one on Hills Road, and Mill Road again

The county council advertised a large batch of orders on 16 September, almost all of them for October. Three stand out.

• Hills Road cycle lane, west side, Long Road to a point just north of Purbeck Road. Suspended from 5 October to 4 December for a gas main replacement. Two months on the busiest commuter cycle route into the city from the south.
• Gresham Road and Norfolk Street, closed from 26 October to 16 November for carriageway and footway resurfacing. Gresham Road shuts between Gonville Place and Harvey Road; Norfolk Street between East Road and Staffordshire Street, with traffic sent via St Matthews Street and the A603.
• Mill Road, closed between Belgrave Road and Hemingford Road from 26 October to 30 October for a new water connection, with a diversion via the A1134, Cherry Hinton Road, the A1307 and the A603.

Also advertised for October: St Thomas’s Square from 26 October to 23 December for mains repairs, Glebe Road from 26 October to 14 November for a gas main upgrade, Trinity Lane and Garret Hostel Lane from 5 to 9 October, Park Parade from 6 to 9 October, Newmarket Road with its bus lane suspended between Ditton Lane and Meadowlands Road from 10 to 18 October, and Milton Road with its bus lane suspended between Union Lane and Fraser Road on 19 and 20 October.

On the council’s own resurfacing programme, Gonville Place follows on 26 October for two weeks of nights and East Road on 2 November for two weeks, taking out the eastern side of the inner ring in consecutive fortnights. Four city roads are still down for autumn 2026 with no firm dates: Madingley Road between Northampton Street and Storeys Way, Newmarket Road between Wadloes Road and Meadowlands Road, Marlowe Road in full, and Barton Road from Newnham Road towards Grantchester Road. Hills Road is scheduled for summer 2027 in three sections between Long Road and St Paul’s Walk.

The council warns that dates move at short notice. Its own live map is the one.network service, which now asks anonymous visitors to sign in before it shows a roadworks list, so it is less useful than it was.

Milton Road parking: object by 7 October

Separately from the roadworks, the county council is consulting on an amendment to the Milton Road Residents’ Parking Scheme. It would make mapping corrections, introduce Permit Parking Areas, add and revoke residents’ parking bays and double yellow lines, and change existing restrictions “to reflect the scheme as installed”.

Objections and comments must be in writing by 7 October 2026, quoting reference PR1239, either through the council’s consultation portal or by email to troconsultation.responses@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

Trains: a power failure today, and late-night buses from the 28th

Today, Friday 18 September, there is real disruption on the King’s Cross line. A failure with the electricity supply between Stevenage and Finsbury Park, reported at 03:22, means fewer trains can run. National Rail says services between Stevenage and London may be cancelled, altered or delayed by up to 20 minutes, and that disruption is expected until at least 15:00.

What that means from Cambridge:

• King’s Lynn to King’s Cross trains are running between King’s Lynn and Cambridge only
• there is a reduced Great Northern service between Cambridge and London
• tickets are being accepted on Thameslink to St Pancras, Great Northern to King’s Cross and Greater Anglia to Liverpool Street, and on the Underground via any London terminal
• Great Northern is advising passengers to allow at least an extra 45 minutes

The forward book for the next fortnight:

• Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September: engineering work in the Liverpool Street area. Greater Anglia trains between Cambridge and Liverpool Street that normally run via Seven Sisters are diverted via Tottenham Hale on both days.
• Sunday 20 September, before 09:10: buses replace trains between Audley End or Stansted Airport and Broxbourne, so the Liverpool Street route is broken first thing.
• Sunday 20 September, before about 07:15: no trains between London King’s Cross and Finsbury Park. Paper tickets are accepted on London buses and the Underground between the two.
• Monday 21 to Thursday 24 September, after 21:45: buses replace trains between Ely and King’s Lynn. The 20:49 King’s Lynn to King’s Cross service leaves four minutes early, at 20:45.
• Monday 28 September to Friday 2 October, 23:55 to 05:05: buses replace trains between Stevenage and Royston or Cambridge, every night. This hits Great Northern’s King’s Cross services and Thameslink’s Brighton to Cambridge route.

There is no daytime weekend closure listed for Cambridge on 26 and 27 September.

Journey times and fares on the London route are on Cambridge to London trains.

The Mill Road bus gate

If you take one thing from this page, take this. Mill Road bridge is a bus gate. Driving a non-exempt vehicle over it gets you a £70 penalty charge notice, reduced to £35 if you pay within 21 days and increased by 50% to £105 if you neither pay nor challenge within 28 days. Enforcement is by ANPR camera and began on 11 March 2025.

Exempt vehicles are buses, taxis, emergency services, vehicles in the disabled tax class, registered Blue Badge holders’ vehicles and anything on the council’s permitted vehicle list. Registration is not automatic: Blue Badge holders must register up to two vehicles through the council’s MiPermit portal, and disabled residents who are not Blue Badge holders, plus their carers and professional carers doing home visits in the Mill Road area, can apply separately. An exemption for Mill Road does not cover any other bus gate or bus lane in Cambridge, and there are plenty: Regent Street, Emmanuel Road, Bridge Street, Station Road, Silver Street and Worts Causeway all have one, and four bus lanes are enforced on Elizabeth Way, Newmarket Road in both directions and Hills Road inbound.

The restriction is not under review in the short term. The council has said the Highways and Transport Committee will receive its report on the bus gate in spring 2027, two years after enforcement began.

Park and ride, and what it saves you

Cambridge has five park and ride sites on the approaches to the city: Madingley Road (route PR1, CB3 0EX), Newmarket Road (PR2, CB5 8AA), Trumpington (PR3, CB2 9FT), Babraham Road (PR4, CB22 3AB) and Milton (CB24 6DQ).

Parking is free for up to 18 hours. Beyond that it is £10 for 18 to 24 hours, £20 for 24 to 48 hours and £30 for 48 to 72 hours, paid through RingGo within the first hour of arrival. The bus fares are:

• Adult return £4.50, with up to four under-5s free with each fare-paying adult
• Child return £1 for ages 5 to 15 with a fare-paying adult or a Tiger Pass, up to four children per adult
• Short hop return £3.80, between Babraham Road and Addenbrooke’s, and between Newmarket Road and the Abbey Stadium on match days
• Small group £10 for up to three people, large group £15 for up to five, both giving a day’s travel in the Cambridge town zone

Both group tickets have gone up by 50p and £1 since the summer. The season tickets are back on the site, after a spell when it listed none: a week on park and ride buses only is £14, a week on park and ride and Stagecoach buses across Cambridge is £15, and the monthly Megarider Xtra is £57.60 on automatic payment. A single is £3, and return tickets are only valid on the day you buy them, so an overnight stay means two singles.

Concessionary pass holders with a Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority pass travel free all day; other English National Concessionary passes are valid after 09:30 on weekdays and all day at weekends.

There is one thing to know about Babraham Road. A Public Space Protection Order came into force there on 30 July 2026 after a joint consultation by the city and district councils, in which 88% of 160-plus respondents backed tougher measures against dangerous and disruptive driving at the site. Breaches are now finable and enforcement is by ANPR and CCTV without staff on site. Milton park and ride has had a similar order since last year.

City centre car parks

Cambridge City Council runs five multi-storey car parks: Grand Arcade, Park Street, Grafton East, Grafton West and Queen Anne Terrace. All are short-stay, all take cash, card, Apple Pay and Android Pay, and all give Blue Badge holders three hours free if you scan the badge when you pay.

Castle Hill car park is closed until 23 September, so it is back next Thursday. The council shut it on 10 September for electrical maintenance, taking 111 spaces and 23 electric vehicle charging points out of use for a fortnight, and it points drivers to Park Street meanwhile. Castle Hill is the cheapest all-day parking in the city at £10 for over four hours, so the swap is an expensive one: the detail is in Castle Hill car park closed 10 to 23 September.

Queen Anne Terrace is the cheapest for a long stay and the council says so on its own page. It also has 40 electric vehicle charging points, free motorcycle parking on the ground floor and a 2.1 metre height limit, against 1.98 metres at the other two. It is about a 15-minute walk from the centre, and it is the obvious choice for Parker’s Piece, the Grafton, Anglia Ruskin and Parkside pool. Its lift is working again, after a spell out of service over the summer: the council now gives its hours as 8am to 8pm Monday to Saturday and 10am to 5pm on Sunday. Parking there is free from 6pm until the next daytime tariff.

Grand Arcade is the closest to the colleges and the river and is priced accordingly. The problem has moved there: the council says the lower-level lift at Grand Arcade is not working, and the accessible toilet on level -1 is closed for repairs. Coaches are not allowed at any of the three; the council directs them to Madingley Road park and ride.

Evening and overnight parking, from 6pm until the next daytime tariff, is £1.80 an hour at the Grand Arcade and £1.30 at Grafton East.

Frequently asked questions

What roads are closed in Cambridge right now?

Trumpington Road between Brooklands Avenue and Long Road is closed 9pm to 5am, from 1 September for four weeks. On the strategic network, the M11 northbound is shut between junction 9 and the A11 at Fourwentways from 9pm to 5am on the nights of 18, 19 and 20 September. Barton Road at Grantchester closes overnight from 21 to 27 September, and the A428 westbound between Hardwick and Cambourne is shut 8pm to 6am on the night of Monday 21 September.

How long is Trumpington Road closed for?

Four weeks from 1 September, overnight only, between 9pm and 5am, with a signed diversion. It reopens each morning, so it should come off at about the end of September. The council’s programme does not publish an exact finish date and says dates can move at short notice.

Is the A14 closed at weekends now?

No. National Highways advertised an order on 3 September proposing full weekend closures of the A14 west of Huntingdon from 18 September, but no such closure appears in its closure report for 17 to 23 September, and no notice has been published saying the order has been made. The A14 westbound between junction 22 Brampton and junction 13 Thrapston is closed on the nights of 21 to 24 September, which is a weeknight scheme, not a weekend one.

Is the A14 at Milton down to 50mph?

The order allowing it is in force. National Highways made it with effect from 24 August, for about four months of resurfacing and bridge work between junction 33 and junction 35. It permits 50mph and 40mph limits with narrow lanes, but only where signs show them, and we could not confirm today that they are up.

How much is the Mill Road bus gate fine?

£70, reduced to £35 if you pay within 21 days, and increased to £105 if you do not pay or challenge within 28 days. Enforcement is by ANPR camera and started on 11 March 2025.

Is Cambridge park and ride free?

Parking is free for up to 18 hours; you pay for the bus. An adult return is £4.50 and a child return is £1 with a fare-paying adult. A week on the park and ride buses is £14, or £15 including Stagecoach buses across the city. Staying longer than 18 hours costs £10 up to 24 hours, £20 up to 48 and £30 up to 72.

Which Cambridge car park is cheapest?

For a full day, Castle Hill off Castle Street, at £10 for over four hours on a weekday and a flat £5 on a Sunday. It is closed for electrical maintenance until 23 September. Of the multi-storeys, Queen Anne Terrace on Gonville Place is cheapest at £24 for over six hours on a weekday and £26 at the weekend, against £33.50 and £36.50 at the Grand Arcade and Park Street. Queen Anne Terrace is also free after 6pm.

Sources

• Cambridgeshire County Council, road improvements programme for the Cambridge city resurfacing schedule, start dates, durations and working hours.
• National Highways seven day closure report, the spreadsheet edition covering 17 to 23 September 2026, for the M11, A14 and A428 overnight closures.
• National Highways east maintenance schemes for the Tollbar Lane scheme, its junction 22 to junction 13 closures, the published diversions and the further closure planned for the week of 28 September, and for the A14 junction 33 to junction 34 technology improvements.
• National Highways notices for the A14 junction 33 to junction 35 order: advertised 6 August 2026 and made, published 20 August 2026, for the start date, speed limits and layby closures.
• National Highways notice for the A1 and A14 order, 3 September 2026 for the proposed weekend closures from 18 September and the A428 diversion.
• Statutory temporary traffic orders advertised by Cambridgeshire County Council: the notices published 16 September 2026 and 16 September 2026 for the October batch, Elizabeth Way and Fen Road; and the notices of 26 August 2026 and 19 August 2026 for Barton Road, Huntingdon Road, Whitehill Road, Bridge Street and Chesterton Road.
• Cambridgeshire County Council waiting restrictions notice, published 16 September 2026 for the Adams Road order made on 11 September and in operation from 17 September, and for the Milton Road residents’ parking amendment and its 7 October deadline.
• National Rail for the trains: the Welwyn Garden City power supply incident of 18 September, Audley End, Stansted Airport and Broxbourne on 20 September, London Liverpool Street on 19 and 20 September, King’s Cross and Finsbury Park on 20 September, Ely and King’s Lynn from 21 September and Stevenage to Royston and Cambridge from 28 September.
• Cambridgeshire County Council, Mill Road bridge TRO and bus lane and bus gate enforcement for the £70 charge, the discount and surcharge, the 11 March 2025 start, the exemptions, the list of gates and lanes and the spring 2027 committee report.
• Cambridge Park and Ride pricing for parking charges, bus fares, the weekly and monthly passes and the single fare, and the site pages for locations and route numbers.
• Cambridge City Council, Grand Arcade, Park Street, Grafton East, Queen Anne Terrace and Castle Hill car park pages for tariffs, capacities, height limits and lift status, and the council’s alerts page for the Castle Hill closure and the Grand Arcade lift.
• Cambridge City Council, Castle Hill car park closed from 10 to 23 September, published 3 September 2026.
• Cambridge City Council, crackdown on anti-social driving at Babraham Road Park and Ride, 30 July 2026 for the Public Space Protection Order.

Checked 18 September 2026. The county council’s resurfacing programme, its traffic orders on the Public Notice Portal, the National Highways closure report and east schemes page, the National Rail incident and engineering pages, the park and ride pricing page and the city council’s alerts were all re-read today. Car park tariffs carry forward from the 11 September check. Roadworks dates move at short notice and tariffs change each year, so confirm against the council’s own pages before you set off. Trains instead of the car are covered on Cambridge to London trains; what is being built is on Cambridge planning.