TRANSCO, the Bolton-based gas pipeline company, has awarded a contract worth more than £30 million to McAlpine Pressugh to construct a new high-pressure gas pipeline. McAlpine Pressugh will be responsible for designing and building the 40-kilometre pipeline which will run between Mawdesley in Lancashire and Warrington in Cheshire. They will also carry out a large-scale environmental reinstatement programme once construction work is complete.
The 42-inch diameter pipeline will help meet the growing demand for gas in the North-west, North Wales and the Midlands. Once built, it will be buried underground for its entire length.
Hedgerows
The pipe will run from Mawdesley, passing through Wrightington Bar, Blackrod, Westhoughton, Atherton, Leigh, Glazebury and Glazebrook, before ending in Warrington.
It will cross two motorways, two rivers, two canals, five rail lines and 29 roads and negotiate 160 hedgerows in its route across country.
Transco, of Spa Road, Bolton, has finalised the pipeline route in consultation with a large number or organisations, including local authorities, the Environment Agency, English Nature and the Lancashire and Cheshire Wildlife Trusts.
A detailed Environmental Review document has been drawn up which spells out the measures to be taken by the contractor to mitigate the impact of construction work on the landscape and ecology of the area.
Construction work will take place in the years 2000 and 2001. The main construction activity will take place between April and October of these years.
This will be followed by a programme of environmental reinstatement.
At the peak of construction, it is expected that between 300 and 400 local jobs will be created.
Transco Project manager, Peter Johnson said: "Transco is skilled in managing construction projects on this scale.
"In the last two years, we have built similar high pressure gas pipelines between Treales and Burscough in Lancashire and Warrington and Warburton in Cheshire."
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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