Local students visit Alconbury Weald infrastructure project
- 24.10.2025
Ten students from St Peter’s School spent a morning at Alconbury Weald with Breheny Civil Engineering to find out about the wide range of skills needed to design and install a major piece of infrastructure like the site’s Southern Gateway.
Co-ordinated by Constructed Pathways as part of its remit to support Alconbury Weald contractors like Breheny to deliver local employment and skills opportunities, students learnt about the design, planning and development stages of the project and the different jobs involved before going to see the construction taking place.
During the classroom session, Breheny shared plans and drone footage to help illustrate the scale of the project. This includes 2km of new carriageway with footpaths, cycleways and streetlights as well as services to support the new homes, and work to connect the Southern Gateway into the A141.
"We’re incredibly proud of the work we do and it’s great to be able to share some of our knowledge and insights with the next generation. The students that came along from St Peter’s all have an interest in a potential career in the built environment, but they were surprised at the wide range of careers involved in a project of this scale.”
Living locally and aware of the A141 works currently being undertaken to connect Alconbury Weald, the students had lots of questions about the project and how it will support the wider infrastructure for road users.
“The Breheny visit at Alconbury Weald was a bit of an eye opener for our students, who had no idea the amount of people or job roles involved to make something like this happen. They really enjoyed being out on the site as it helped to put what they were told during the classroom session into perspective. It definitely sparked their curiosity, and following the session they expressed an interest in finding out more from some of Breheny’s apprentices and other workers to find out about what they do and how they got into it.”
Working with the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), Urban&Civic has set up a National Skills Academy for Construction at Alconbury Weald with contractors, housebuilders and other main suppliers contractually obliged to provide training and career opportunities for people living in the area.
Their requirements include key performance indicators (KPIs) based on the value of the project to create specific jobs locally, support work placements for local people, carry out educational outreach with local schools and colleges and support training of both new and existing staff in modern construction and green skills.
Constructed Pathways is helping facilitate those commitments and create a framework to help contractors achieve their requirements.
