Ardent is part of the team responsible for the preparation, submission and processing of the Development Consent Order (DCO) application for the improvements to the A1 Black Cat junction and the new stretch of dual carriageway to the Caxton Gibbett junction.  The application will be submitted by Highways England in 2020.

Ardent is responsible for the Land Referencing, production of Book of Reference (BoR), associated plans and Statement of Reasons (SoR). We are also responsible for the negotiation of landowner agreements, landowner engagement and survey access.

The project is ongoing with submission of the application planned for 2020.  Regular liaison has been key to building relationships with affected stakeholders to ensure successful ongoing survey access requirements and identifying any landowner concerns.

Our CMC team has recently joined the Highways England client team on the A428 project to help coordinate and deliver the up-coming DCO application for this important link between the M1 and the M11, connecting the communities of Bedford, St Neots, Cambridge and Cambourne.

Bringing together the client, design and delivery teams our role is to minimise risk to a successful DCO outcome, ensure all requirements are identified and make sure stakeholder’s views are properly considered.  This involves making sure the project has the right governance and project management systems in place to monitor and manage change, risk, cost, programme, business case and safety.

Areas we cover include DCO, detailed design engagement, consents and protective provisions with third parties and utilities.

Having experience of the whole project lifecycle we look to make sure that any consents and commitments, particularly when changes arise, can be carried successful into delivery.