Hawton & Staythorpe Grantham Projects Completed
During the project we had both internal and external audits which the team received high praise for. Shane Doughty, Site Manager and the team of over 30 completed the project extremely efficiently and overcame challenges when they arose, eliminating any impact to the programme.
The Transmission England team have ended the year with the completion of two of their OHL projects, Hawton & Staythorpe Grantham. Hawton, an OHL dismantling project, saw the main works completed, erecting a new terminal tower and transferring the conductors across and dismantling 7 of the 8 redundant towers. The final tower was dismantled and bundled for re-use by the client, this month and the foundations removed.
Staythorpe saw the final Network Rail section completed, including two night shifts by the team with the line available for re-energisation a week ahead of schedule. However, there was still a lot of work to undertake removing machines from site, crossing protections, trackway access and demobilising the site welfare. During the project we had both internal and external audits which the team received high praise for. Shane Doughty, Site Manager and the team of over 30 completed the project extremely efficiently and overcame challenges when they arose, eliminating any impact to the programme.
However, Transmission South are not stopping on the run up to the Christmas break with 3 point of connection schemes in the Worcester & Gloucester area underway. Due to delays the team have been under pressure installing tower foundations on all three projects Doverdale, Claydon and Ryall Lane, before the end of 2024. This entails successfully completing the diversion of the Doverdale OHL and installation of a new terminal tower and sealing end platform as well as through connection. The cable connections and downleads will be started in the new year, ready for connection to the solar farm substation that is currently under construction.
The Claydon and Ryall Lane diversion and tower erections will be started in early 2025 with completion dates in March.
Previous info on above projects
Our Transmission England team have been hard at work on the Staythorpe to Grantham project, refurbishing the existing 132kV double overhead line circuit. This involves the replacement of the OHL and earth wire over the span of 23km on 79 towers between Staythorpe Substation & Grantham North Substation. Furthermore, there was an additional section of earth wire replacement to be carried out on an adjacent circuit.
During the contract award the team were also requested to install an additional two L4m terminal towers to facilitate two solar farm points of connections. This required an offline build followed by the transfer of the OHL to the new tower and a tower being raised into position under outage with the conductors in situ.
The team mobilised on site at the beginning of August, with preliminary works starting much earlier due to sensitive stakeholder management required from Highways and Network Rail and landowners. This was due to the project’s reach passing private shooting grounds, commercial business’s and taking place during harvest times. With the need for early communication, strong relationships have been made and maintained, allowing for required access and deployment of OHL protection. The team have utilised an abundance of CCS and Scaffold protection, enabling a smooth programme of works.