New gas main to cross Whitchurch Road railway bridge

Commencing Saturday 25 August National Grid will begin work to lay a new gas main across the Whitchurch Road Railway Bridge in Chester.

To allow work to take place, temporary two way traffic lights will be in operation from the junction of Pepper Street over a distance of 150m for a period of 3 days which has been agreed with Cheshire County Council.

This is part of a £2.6m project to replace 9 kilometres of cast iron main with modern, durable plastic piping, which has a lifespan of 80 years if left undisturbed in the ground. Once complete, Chester will be one of the first cities in the UK to boast an ‘all plastic’ network of medium pressure mains.

Nigel Ollerenshaw, National Grid’s Operations Engineer said: “It is inevitable that our work will result in delays and we have chosen the Bank Holiday weekend to do this in order to keep delays to a minimum. It is expected that this phase of the project to be completed by the evening of Tuesday 27 August when the traffic lights will be removed.”

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For further media information only, please contact Carol Lloyd , National Grid Communications on 01926 655372

National Grid
National Grid is one of the world's largest utilities, focused on delivering energy safely, reliably, efficiently and responsibly. Our principal interests are in the transmission and distribution of electricity and gas in the UK and US.

We own and operate over 6,800 kilometres of high-pressure transmission pipeline across Great Britain, and 132,000 kilometres of lower-pressure distribution gas mains in the North West, the Midlands, East Anglia and North London – more than half of Britain's gas transportation network, delivering gas to around 11 million homes, offices and factories.

We operate the high-voltage electricity transmission network across Great Britain, and own the network in England and Wales.

National Grid will continue to manage the National Gas Emergency Service freephone line 0800 111 999*.

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