National Grid celebrates 4 million hours worked on the Hinkley Connection Project
National Grid and its contractors are celebrating a total of four million hours worked on the Hinkley Connection Project while maintaining a world-class safety performance.
The Hinkley Connection project stretches 57km from Bridgwater to Avonmouth and will connect six million homes and businesses to new sources of low carbon, homegrown energy, including from Hinkley Point C.
Construction began in 2018 and is set for completion in 2025. The four million hours worked to date by teams from National Grid and its 12 specialist contractors have been put to good use.
Key achievements include:
- constructing 116 pylons to the new T-pylon design in a world-first
- installation and energisation of 8.5km of underground cables under the Mendip Hills, a designated National Landscape
- planting of over 5,000 trees along the route
- volunteer and STEM events with schools along the route, plus over half a million local school children supported via STEM grants
- preservation by record of a previously undiscovered Roman settlement
- construction of two new substations at Shurton and Sandford
- removal of 249 existing pylons from the Somerset landscape to make way for the new connection
- making available over £1.6 million of grant funding for 100 different community projects
- construction and opening of a new traffic-free section of the popular Strawberry Line Heritage Path.
Steven Haskayne, project director for National Grid, said: "The total number of working hours demonstrates the scale of the project and what it takes to deliver the critical infrastructure that will build future resilience into the network and support the UK’s net zero by 2050 ambitions. I’m proud of every moment that each team member has dedicated to the Hinkley Connection Project, and what we’ve collectively achieved so far.
"Even more important for me is the fact that we’ve achieved all this whilst maintaining the highest safety standards. No programme milestone is more important than ensuring everyone gets home safely to their families at the end of the day."
