East Huntspill to Mendips
Current construction activity
| Date from | Date to | Activity |
| May 2020 | Ongoing | T-pylons and reinstatement between Bridgwater substation and Loxton |
| May 2020 | Ongoing | Access to public footpaths and rights of way |
| 2018 | Ongoing | Roadworks and traffic management |
Overview – Spring 2024
The world’s first T-pylons between Bridgwater and Loxton are nowenergised and transporting electricity around the National Grid electricity network.
To make way for the new 400,000 volt pylons, National Grid is removing 249 existing 132,000 volt lattice pylons, and overhead wires stretching 67 kilometres from the Somerset landscape. We’ve removed 99 pylons between Bridgwater and Sandford, leaving part of Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty pylon free for the first time in almost 100 years.
We have begun reinstatement across the new connection route, removing construction access, temporary roads and work pads. You may expect to see more construction traffic on local roads and we will be in touch ahead of any traffic management impacts.
Thank you from everyone working on the project for your patience and understanding as we progress with this vital work to connect six million homes and businesses to new sources of homegrown, low carbon energy, and help the UK meet its net zero ambitions.
East Huntspill to Mendips timeline
Early 2019 to mid 2024
Build and access temporary haul road and construction compounds
What we're doing:
Building two temporary construction compounds and a temporary entrance and access road off the A38, north of Tarnock, to allow construction traffic to enter the site from the local highway. Work will start on the access and compounds in 2019.
One of the compounds will includes site offices and internal and external storage facilities to support the work to build a 400,000 volt underground cable across the Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
The other temporary site compound will be used for the construction of the 400,000 volt overhead line and removal of the existing 132,000 volt overhead line in the area.
Completed late 2022
Built new 400,000 volt overhead line
This work has been completed
Work carried out:
Built a new overhead line from the existing Hinkley to Melksham overhead line, which is north of Woolavington, northwards to a new cable sealing end (CSE) compound just south of the Mendip Hills. See Mendip Hills for further information about the CSE compound.
We will use T-pylons in this area, with the exception of where the overhead line connects to the existing overhead line.
Completed mid 2022
Removal of existing 132,000 volt overhead line
This work has been completed.
Work carried out:
Removed existing overhead line from Bridgwater substation to the A368 in Sandford. This made way for, and minimised the visual impact of the new overhead line.