Bolton: £440,000 gas pipe upgrade completes on time

• Gas network Cadent invests more than £440,000 to upgrade an old gas main that helps ensure thousands of homes in Bolton are warm in winter
• 1,400 metres of underground cast iron pipe – which records indicate was more than a century old – has now been safely decommissioned and its long-lasting replacement is now delivering gas to the local area
• Work completed this week, with all necessary traffic management on Blackburn Road now lifted

Major engineering work to decommission a very old gas main and replace it with a long-lasting new one was completed this week in Bolton.

Cadent, which manages the North West’s gas mains network, has invested £440,000 to replace a large section of a 15-inch diameter cast iron main, parts of which had been operating under Blackburn Road for more than 110 years.

This has involved major engineering, with heavy machinery operating in a densely-populated, residential area, and along a very busy road. The safety of residents, motorists and workers has been the main priority.

More than 84 per cent of the 116,371 households in Bolton use gas for central heating, with many also using it to cook meals and for hot water. Careful planning has gone into keeping homes and businesses on gas during this work.

Craig Horrocks, who manages Cadent’s gas main replacement programme in the North West, said: We’ve really appreciated everyone’s patience and understanding while we’ve carried out this work.

With projects on a scale like this, there will always be challenges  expected ones and unexpected ones. We know it has been disruptive and we hope people understand the work is essential to maintain a long-term, safe gas supply.

We are grateful to residents, businesses, road users and Bolton Council for supporting us over the last seven months.

This also means the end of frequent, equally-disruptive visits to carry out repairs on what was a very old gas main. The new pipe ends all of that – and ensures we can deliver ever-greener gas to help heat homes in the local area.

This project in Blackburn Road forms part of a much bigger programme to upgrade old metallic gas mains across the UK, over several decades. Some of these pipes have been in the ground and distributing gas since the 19^th century.

Cadent is a gas distribution network, responsible for safely transporting gas to more than 11 million customers in North West England, the Midlands, East of England and North London, through more than 80,000 miles of pipes. It also provides the 24/7, year-round gas emergency service to the same regions.