Project overview

We are refurbishing sections of the 64.5km overhead electricity line between Lovedean and Bolney, replacing fittings on pylons and repairing steelwork where necessary.

The route, made up of 190 pylons with two circuits, begins at our substation in Lovedean and runs close to the South Downs National Park, to our substation in Bolney.

We are refurbishing each circuit separately to allow electricity provision to be maintained when the power is turned off on one side of the pylons. There will be no disruption to the supply of electricity while this work is carried out. Works are expected to be complete by Autumn 2025.

We are committed to investing in the ongoing refurbishment of our network to ensure that it continues to meet the needs of our customers and communities for years to come. This maintenance work is needed to ensure a continued, reliable supply of electricity to homes and businesses.

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What you can expect to see

While the refurbishment is ongoing, you can expect to see work to establish access routes, repairs to pylon steelwork, and engineers working at height to replace the fittings. Our working hours will be between 7am to 7pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 4pm on Saturday and Sunday.

The work will be carried out by Morgan Sindall, on behalf of National Grid.

We don’t anticipate our work causing any major disruption, but you may hear some noise while we are working or notice some construction vehicles in your local area.

Works to local roads and footpaths

To ensure that the refurbishment works can take place safely we will occasionally need to temporarily close local roads, footpaths and bridleways where they intersect with the overhead line route.  

All such closures and temporary traffic management plans are planned and scheduled following conversation and agreement with the relevant local authority and are required to ensure the safety of both members of the public and our team whilst these essential works are taking place.

Temporary stop and go measures

Over the coming months you may see some temporary ‘stop and go’ traffic management measurements put in place on local roads located next to the overhead line. These measures are required to enable our team to access working sites and drop off equipment safely. They are not expected to last any longer than 15 minutes at a time and will cause minimal disruption.

Road and lane closures

The latest information on any planned road or lane closures can be found below. We will ensure local residents and elected representatives are notified in advance of any closures.

A section of Chithurst Lane / Briar Lane, Chithurst, Petersfield, GU31 5EU will be closed for vehicle access between Monday 14 April and Wednesday 23 April. This is to enable the installation of some temporary trackway on Briar Lane to create a safe access route to the electricity pylon where works are taking place. Access to nearby properties and emergency vehicles will be maintained throughout the road closure. All other vehicles including delivery drivers, will be required to follow the signposted diversion throughout the duration of the road closure.

Work to date

To enable the first stage of refurbishment, we undertook inspections of each of the pylons to assess their condition. This required the site surrounding each pylon to be prepared, which involved clearing any vegetation to enable safe access. All vegetation clearance was undertaken in line with guidance and consent provided by the relevant authorities.

Now this initial period of vegetation clearance and site inspection is complete, our main works are able to begin.

What’s next?

We expect these main works to be complete by November 2025. To find out more about what our main works are, visit our FAQs page linked below.

Keeping you informed

We will update this webpage as we progress through the project to let you know where you might expect to see our team working.  For some areas, updates will be provided by email or post before we start our work.

Frequently asked questions

Visit our frequently asked questions page where you'll find answers to the most common questions we're asked.

 Visit the FAQ page
 

Contact us

If you want to find out more about the project or have any questions, please contact us by emailing [email protected] or calling 0800 998 7802 (between 9am and 4:30pm, Monday to Friday).