News
Nov 16, 2009
“A new dimension in pipeline construction”
The OPAL is now becoming reality with construction work for the first pipeline link for the Nord Stream Baltic Sea pipeline well underway at the sections running through Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony, both 100 kilometers long.
The OPAL is now becoming reality with construction work for the first pipeline link for the Nord Stream Baltic Sea pipeline well underway at the sections running through Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony, both 100 kilometers long. The pipeline construction is progressing at an impressive rate: the top soil has been removed from more than 125 kilometers of land and almost 25 kilometers of pipes have already been welded.
WINGAS Chairman Dr. Gerhard König
The first pipes have also been laid in the last few days. WINGAS Chairman Dr. Gerhard König visited the site in Lichtenberg in Saxony to gain an impression of the construction work on what is currently Germany’s largest natural gas infrastructure project. “We are entering a new dimension of pipeline construction using proven technology”, Dr. König said upon seeing the section of the pipeline, which is over one kilometer long and weighs over 800 tons. Massive cranes, so-called ‘sidebooms’, made laying the pipeline into the excavated trenches look like child’s play. The pipes, which have a diameter of 1.4 meters, are currently the biggest pipes to be laid in the ground in pipeline construction in Germany. “The workers out here on the construction site are doing a great job,” Dr. König said.
The construction work for the 470-kilometer-long OPAL (Ostsee-Pipeline-Anbindungs-Leitung – Baltic Sea Pipeline Link) began in late summer in parallel in both Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony.
The building permit for the section in Brandenburg is expected at the start of 2010 – with construction work set to begin thereafter. In the peak phase of construction, up to 2000 construction workers will be employed along the OPAL. The planned date of commissioning for the pipeline is October 2011. Construction work on the second pipeline link for Nord Stream – the NEL (Norddeutsche Erdgasleitung – Northern German Gas Link) – is planned for spring 2011. The OPAL will run from Lubmin to Brandov on the German-Czech border, while the NEL will transport gas to the natural gas storage facility in Rehden, south of Bremen.
all news
