Corridor 11 of 12

Comberton Greenway

Coton village and Adams Road are done, but the review asked for one wall to be removed on Adams Road and the programme spent £2.4m there. The biggest new off-road route left in the programme, beyond Coton, is still at planning stage.

Under construction

Map from the 2016 review showing the proposed Comberton Greenway and its links — The corridor as drawn in 2016. Reproduced from the review commissioned by Cambridgeshire County Council; base mapping © OpenStreetMap contributors. See the full document →

What became of the 8 proposals for this corridor

Built and open · 1 Built, already needs repair · 1 In design or planning · 4 Scaled back · 1 Not in current programme · 1

What the 2016 review asked for

Widen the Coton to M11 bridge path, 400 m (built, and already cracking)
Repair the surface of the M11 bridge
New ramps and path from the M11 bridge into West Cambridge, 300 m
Remove the low wall at the Adams Road / Wilberforce Road junction
Replace the Bin Brook bridge on Burrell's Walk
A safe crossing of Long Road, assumed to be a new underpass
New path on field edges and bridleway, Coton via Hardwick to Comberton Village College, 5 km

What happened

Spring 2019Initial consultation.
25 June 2020Board approves the route at £9m.
July 2022Camcycle consultation guide; Long Road is to get a parallel crossing, not an underpass.
December 2022Executive Board approval to proceed.
29 September 2025Construction starts in Coton village.
13 October 2025Adams Road works begin on a £2.4m scheme, billed as England's first cycle street, on a road already carrying around 3,000 cyclists a day.
5 March 2026Full business case approved, together with the Sidgwick Avenue experimental traffic order.
2026Planning application submitted for the full route, Comberton to central Cambridge.
August 2026Adams Road complete, after opening at the end of May and closing for about two weeks in August while substandard road markings were replaced at the contractor's expense.
Early 2026Coton village complete, with a 20mph limit following later in the year.

Where it stands, November 2026

Part open, part in planning. Adams Road, Grange Road and Coton village are finished, and the path from Coton to the M11 bridge was widened some years ago, although it now has subsidence and cracking. The Cambridge end is not yet continuous: the new ramps and path from the M11 bridge into West Cambridge are still to be built, and the bridge surface still needs repair. The rural 5 km from Coton through Hardwick to Comberton Village College, the largest new off-road route left in the whole programme, is in the planning application. The review's assumed grade-separated Long Road crossing has become a surface parallel crossing; the review had argued that at peak times 'a safe crossing is important' and that a concrete box could be installed relatively quickly. The 2016 review asked for one change on Adams Road: remove a low wall at the Wilberforce Road junction. The programme spent £2.4m there instead, on wider footways, red surfacing, planting and junction work, on a street that already carried up to 3,000 cyclists a day. It is a better street. But it was highway land the council already controlled, while the 5km of new off-road path the same greenway needs beyond Coton is still at planning stage. 'Cycle street' is a description, not a legal designation: drivers are asked to stay behind people on bikes, not required to.

2026/27 budget £400kApproved 2020 at £9mOpen Adams Rd, Coton

Sources for this page

Audit

Every proposal on this route

Proposed intervention (2016)	Type	Scale	Status 2026	What happened
Widen and upgrade the path and ramps from the edge of Coton to the M11 bridge	Upgrade	400 m	Built, already needs repair	Built, and already failing. Widened and upgraded several years ago, according to local cyclists, it has since suffered subsidence and longitudinal cracking, particularly on the bridge ramp, visible in August 2026 photographs. A further 300m from the edge of Coton to the village centre was resurfaced in 2026 with the Coton village works.
Repair the surface of the bridge over the M11	Upgrade	1 bridge	In design or planning	Some repairs have been made, but local cyclists describe the surface as still poor. Further work is in the scheme.
New ramps and path from the M11 bridge into the West Cambridge site at Charles Babbage Road	New route	300 m	In design or planning	In the scheme — the link the review called it 'surprising' to have gone without.
Remove the low wall at the Adams Road / Wilberforce Road junction	Upgrade	—	Built and open	Removed as part of a much larger scheme. The review asked for this one change on Adams Road; the programme spent £2.4m on the street instead, making it what GCP calls England's first cycle street, completed in August 2026. See the Comberton route page.
Replace the Bin Brook bridge on Burrell's Walk with a wider one	New structure	new bridge	In design or planning	Still in the scheme, unbuilt.
Safe crossing of Long Road between Coton and Comberton — assumed to be a new underpass	New structure	underpass	Scaled back	The 2016 report assumed a grade-separated crossing, noting a concrete box could be installed quickly. The scheme now proposes a surface parallel crossing.
New path on field edges and bridleway from Coton via Hardwick to Comberton Village College	New route	5 km	In design or planning	The largest surviving new off-road route in the programme; included in the 2026 planning application.
Investigate extending the route to Cambourne, the Eversdens, Barton and Bourn	New route	various	Not in current programme	Not progressed.