Pipeline firm makes green gift to schools (From Romsey Advertiser)

Pipeline firm makes green gift to schools

3:16pm Tuesday 23rd December 2008

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CHILDREN from four Test Valley primary schools have planted trees to mark the completion of a major new gas pipeline between Lockerley and Barton Stacey.

Pupils from Lockerley, Awbridge, King’s Somborne and Barton Stacey planted saplings donated by the National Grid.

Species included weeping willow and silver birch.

The new 30km pipeline, which was completed in October, will be linked to the National Grid’s artery of feeder pipes around Britain and to the new Marchwood power station.

Bosses at the National Grid gave contractors, Land and Marine NACAP, the trees as a reward for their environmentally-friendly methods.

As a goodwill gesture, the the contractors passed the trees on to the schools andhelped with the planting.

Lockerley Primary School headteacher, Ann Smyth, said: “We’re really pleased with our new trees; they will make a very welcome contribution to the shade we desperately need in the summer. This year, we’ve been able to see the construction of the new pipeline very close to the village but, despite the weather, the land has been returned to its former state and you’d never know the pipeline was there.”

During construction work, the engineers bored beneath the River Test and the Salisbury-to-Southampton railway line at Kimbridge and many roads along the route north of Romsey.

National Grid project manager, Shaun Smith, said: “Care for the environment is extremely important to National Grid and planting these trees is our way of saying thank you to the schools for their tolerance and understanding during the construction of the pipeline.

“We appreciate that our construction works were an inconvenience to the communities along the pipeline route, with an increase in vehicles using the roads, especially in Barton Stacey where our site office was based.”

Project engineering manager, Geoff Tabor, from Land and Marine NACAP, said: “During the pipeline project, we incorporated a number of measures to help improve the environment on and around the area temporarily disturbed by the pipeline construction.”

This included moving a large number of trees, recycling the specialist mud used to drill beneath the rivers Test and Dever and the A303 and the laying of a temporary plastic roadway to cross a sensitive habitat area adjacent to the Test.

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