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East Huntspill to Mendips
Current construction activity
Date from | Date to | Activity |
October 2021 | Summer 2022 | |
May 2020 | Late 2022 | |
May 2020 | Late 2022 | |
2018 | Ongoing |
Overview – Autumn 2022
In April 2022, our contractor, Balfour Beatty, finished building 48 of the new T-pylons between Bridgwater and Loxton and installed the wires ready for energisation.
By using the innovative T-pylon design, the height of the new infrastructure is being reduced by a third. Standing at around 35 metres high – the T-pylon is third shorter than traditional 400,000 volt steel lattice pylons which stand at around 48 metres. It also has a smaller footprint and uses less land.
Reinstatement of the land between Bridgwater and Loxton is underway and will continue through to 2024.
To reduce the visual impact of the new pylons, National Grid is removing 67 kilometres of existing 132,000 volt lattice pylons and overhead wires, a total of 249 pylons will go from the Somerset landscape. 91 pylons have been removed between Bridgwater and Sandford – the eight pylons closest to Sandford substation are programmed for removal during 2023.
Thank you from everyone working on the project for your patience and understanding as we progress this vital work to connect six million homes and businesses to new sources of homegrown, low carbon energy.
Contact our community relations team to register for project updates direct to your inbox.
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.
Early 2020 to late 2022
Build new 400,000 volt overhead line
What we're doing:
Building 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.
Mid 2021 to mid 2022
Remove existing 132,000 volt overhead line
What we're doing:
Removing Western Power Distribution’s overhead line from Bridgwater substation to the A368 in Sandford. This will make way for, and minimise the visual impact of the new overhead line.