Cambridge Roadworks This Week: Park Parade Shut, Hills Road

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

Trumpington Road is open again at night. The county council’s programme now marks the Brooklands Avenue to Long Road resurfacing, which began on 1 September, as completed. The city’s next big resurfacing jobs are Gonville Place and East Road, from 26 October.

These restrictions stay 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, so until 23 October, to apply to the High Court.

National Highways closures near Cambridge to Thursday 8 October

National Highways’ seven day closure report now runs from Friday 2 October to Thursday 8 October. These are the entries that affect Cambridge drivers this week.

• Monday 5 October, 8pm to 6am Tuesday: the A428 westbound is fully closed from Girton to Cambourne, for carriageway reconstruction. That is the main road west out of the city, towards Cambourne and St Neots. It is the only night it is booked.
• Monday 5 to Thursday 8 October, 8pm to 6am: the A14 westbound entry slip at junction 34 Fen Ditton stays closed every night for electrical works.
• Monday 5 to Thursday 8 October, 9pm to 5am: the M11 junction 13 southbound entry slip is closed every night. Junction 13 is the Madingley Road junction on the west of the city.
• Monday 5 and Tuesday 6 October, 10pm to 5.30am: the M11 southbound link roads at junction 6 onto the M25 close for resurfacing. That matters if you drive to London or Heathrow late.

The A11 slip road closures between Six Mile Bottom and Stumps Cross, and Saturday night’s southbound closure from Balsham Road to Worsted Lodge, have finished. The report lists no full closure of the A14 near Cambridge up to 8 October, only the junction 34 slip road.

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. This week’s closure report describes the junction 34 work as electrical and Thursday’s full closure as structure maintenance. 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 still 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.

Three weekends have now passed without one. The closure report for 2 to 8 October lists no weekend closure of the A14 at all, and we found no notice saying 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

These come from the county council’s batch of made orders published on 23 September, so they are firm unless the works themselves move.

The county council’s last two batches of Cambridge orders were published on Wednesdays, 16 and 23 September. No new Cambridge batch appeared on the Public Notice Portal on 30 September, and none had appeared when we checked again on 5 October, so the list above is still the 23 September set.

Later in October: Mill Road, Gresham Road and the inner ring

• 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.
• Glebe Road, closed between Hills Road and Templemore Close from 26 October to 14 November for a gas main upgrade.
• St Thomas’s Square, closed from 26 October to 23 December for mains repairs.
• Regent Terrace, closed between Nos. 19 and 30 from 26 to 30 October for demolition work.
• Coronation Street, one-way order suspended between George IV Street and Panton Street from 28 to 30 October, for fire hydrant repairs.
• Milton Road bus lane suspended between Middleton Close and Downhams Lane on 19 and 20 October, 9.30am to 3.30pm.

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: King’s Lynn line this weekend, Audley End shut on 25 October

• Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October: buses replace trains between Cambridge North and King’s Lynn, and between Peterborough and Ely. CrossCountry’s Birmingham to Cambridge and Stansted trains are affected, and Greater Anglia runs buses between Cambridge North and Thetford.
• Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October: two closures on the same weekend. Buses replace trains between Waltham Cross and Stansted Airport, so there are no through Greater Anglia trains from Cambridge to Liverpool Street; a train every 30 minutes still runs between Stansted Airport and Cambridge, and tickets are accepted on Great Northern and Thameslink via King’s Cross. Buses also replace trains between Peterborough or Cambridge and Ely, and Great Northern runs buses between Cambridge and King’s Lynn.
• Monday 19 to Thursday 22 October, after 21:45: buses replace Great Northern trains between Ely and King’s Lynn every night.
• Monday 19 to Friday 23 October, 23:59 to 05:10: Great Northern and Thameslink trains between London and Cambridge are diverted non-stop via Hertford North, with longer journey times.
• Sunday 25 October: the line between Cambridge and Audley End is closed. Greater Anglia’s replacement buses run from Cambridge North, not Cambridge, apart from a few very early and late buses. Great Northern and Thameslink run buses between Cambridge and Royston.

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 back. The council shut it from 10 to 23 September for electrical maintenance, and its alerts page now lists that closure as resolved. Castle Hill is the cheapest all-day parking in the city at £10 for over four hours; the background 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 lower-level lift is out of service again. The council posted the fault on 28 September: every level is open, but if you need to avoid stairs, park on the upper levels. The Changing Places toilet there is still closed for repairs, and the council points people to the one on Drummer Street. 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’s night closures are over: the county marks that resurfacing as completed. On the strategic network, the A428 westbound is shut from Girton to Cambourne from 8pm on Monday 5 October to 6am on Tuesday. The A14 westbound entry slip at junction 34 Fen Ditton and the M11 junction 13 southbound entry slip are both closed overnight every weeknight to 8 October. In the city, the Hills Road cycle lane is suspended from 5 October, Park Parade is closed from 6 to 9 October and Romsey Road from 12 to 16 October.

When is the Hills Road cycle lane closed?

The west side cycle lane on Hills Road, from Long Road to just north of Purbeck Road, is suspended from 5 October to 4 December 2026 for gas main replacement. The county council published the made order on 23 September. The suspension applies while the signs are up at each end of the works.

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 weekend closure appears in its closure report for 1 to 7 October, and we found no notice saying the order has been made. That report has no full A14 closure near Cambridge at all, only overnight slip road closures at junction 34.

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. Its 10 to 23 September maintenance closure is over. 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 1 to 7 October 2026, for the A428, M11, A14 and A11 overnight closures.
• 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.
• Cambridgeshire County Council’s made temporary traffic orders, Cambridge batch published 23 September 2026 and Cambridgeshire batch published 23 September 2026, for Hills Road, Trinity Lane, Garret Hostel Lane, Ramsden Square, Park Parade, Coldhams Lane, Romsey Road, Akeman Street, the later October closures and the bus and cycle lane suspensions.
• Statutory temporary traffic orders advertised by Cambridgeshire County Council: the notices published 16 September 2026 and 16 September 2026 for the October batch and Fen Road; and the notices of 26 August 2026 and 19 August 2026 for the earlier city closures.
• 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 engineering notices: Ipswich and Stowmarket, 4 October, Waltham Cross and Stansted Airport, 17 and 18 October, Peterborough and Ely, 17 and 18 October, Alexandra Palace and Stevenage, 19 to 23 October, Cambridge and Audley End, 25 October, Stevenage to Royston and Cambridge from 28 September, Norwich and Ely, 3 and 4 October, Tottenham Hale, 4 October, Ely and King’s Lynn, 19 to 22 October, Cambridge North and King’s Lynn, 10 and 11 October and Peterborough and Ely, 10 and 11 October.
• 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, the council’s alerts page, which lists the Castle Hill closure as resolved, and its 28 September alert on 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 5 October 2026. The National Highways closure report, the Public Notice Portal (for any new county traffic orders) and the National Rail engineering pages were re-read today. The county resurfacing programme and the city council’s alerts carry forward from the 2 October check. Car park lift and opening details carry forward from the 27 September check, and park and ride prices from the 18 September check. 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.