By Lynda Myer
The concenteration of ICE online event in the current month will be National Grid’s efforts to place power lines underground in Wales.
While National Grid is trying to remove some of the most visually impactful of its existing overhead lines in Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and National Parks,it is a part of its national Visual Impact Provision program. Being held on January 24, at the ICE event National Grid senior project manager Steve Ellison is due to outline the tunneling work under the Dwyryd Estuary in Eryri National Park (formerly known as Snowdonia).
In order to enabling the removal of 10 pylons and 3.4km of overhead line that spans the estuary near Portmeirion,the Eryri National Park’s only solution is to place the 400kV replacement cables in a tunnel under the estuary.
The team is operating in a highly built-up and populated area, very popular with tourists. The geology and associated groundworks are extremely challenging and the team will need all its experience gained from the Feeder 9 gas pipeline under the Humber to deliver the project.
Ellison’s talk will explore technical aspects of the work including the tunnel design and the TBM; safety and risk management; geology and groundworks; the stages of project delivery; crossing under roads and railways and the estuary; collaborative working with main contractor Hochtief UK; and environmental mitigation.
It will also reference lessons learned and applied to the project and how the team has worked to support the community along the way.
The free online event will be held on January 24 from 13:00-14:00 (GMT). Click here to register for this event and also or for more information contact Sara Horrell at wales.temp@ice.org.uk.
