National Grid, the UK’s largest utility, has today announced plans to speed up work on renewing gas mains in the North West.

The company is planning to replace 615km of metallic gas mains with modern plastic pipe over the next twelve months – 70km more than was replaced in the region last year.

This £94m programme of work is essential to ensure that the 2.7 million gas users in the region can continue to enjoy a safe and reliable gas supply. It is an investment of over £2 billion a year in National Grid’s gas and electricity networks in the UK

The majority of the gas mains will be replaced by targeting selected postcode areas.

This approach to mains renewal has been developed to allow the company to replace all metallic gas mains with modern plastic ones within a postcode area. If left undisturbed once in the ground, the new pipes will have a lifespan of around 80 years.

The idea of postcode replacement was explained by John Edwards, of the North West Gas Alliance – a partnership National Grid has formed with Balfour Beatty to carry out the bulk of the renewal work in the region.

He said: “Over recent years, we have sometimes made repeat visits to the same areas to carry out gas mains replacement. In discussion with the Health and Safety Executive, we have now agreed to replace mains in certain postcode areas in just one visit.

“This means that our engineers will concentrate on specific areas, replacing several kilometres of gas main over a period of months. The main areas where we will be working in the next twelve months are Chester, Macclesfield, Preston, Bolton and St Helens.” (A list of mains replacement by local authority area is attached).

“We will also be carrying out a number of additional projects to replace medium pressure gas mains – the most significant of these will be in the centre of Manchester.”

The North West Gas Alliance will carry out 546km of mains replacement, with other contractors and National Grid’s own workforce carrying out the remaining 69km.

John added: “We are appealing for people to have patience with our work. Our engineers will be busy replacing mains for months in some towns and cities. We know that this may cause inconvenience, but this work is vital if people are to have a safe and reliable gas supply.”

The work to renew the gas mains is part of a national project agreed with the Health and Safety Executive for replacing metallic mains across Britain. In all, the programme will see National Grid renew 15,000 km of gas pipe over an eight year period.

Through working closely with its partners and contractors, National Grid is now able to share its workload up to five years in advance with the highway authorities and other utilities so that street works can be better co-ordinated.

National Grid is also working to tough targets to increase the use of mains laying techniques which reduce the need for open excavation and will generally be using larger teams of engineers to ensure that work is completed as quickly as possible.

For further media information, contact Jeanette Unsworth, National Grid Communications on 07785 290230.

National Grid
National Grid is an international electricity and gas company and one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the world. We play a vital role in delivering gas and electricity to millions of people across Great Britain and northeastern US in an efficient, reliable and safe manner. We believe the power of action can play a major role in safeguarding our global environment for future generations and tackling the effects of climate change, providing all our customers with the highest standards of service through network investment and through our talented, diverse workforce.

National Grid owns the high-voltage electricity transmission network in England and Wales and operates the system across Great Britain. It also owns and operates the high pressure gas transmission system in Britain and its distribution business delivers gas to 11 million homes and businesses.

National Grid manages the National Gas Emergency Service freephone line 0800 111 999*.  

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