The OPAL project
The OPAL is one of the largest pipeline projects in Germany and requires extreme precision on the part of the planning engineers: the pipeline route has to take into consideration factors like nature conservation, geography, safety and economic efficiency in equal measure. Sophisticated technology and a planning process that involves all representatives of public interests guarantee that all these factors are given due consideration.
The OPAL will run south along the Polish border from where the Nord Stream offshore pipeline comes on shore in Lubmin near Greifswald. It will pass Berlin to the East and terminate at the German-Czech border near Olbernhau.
Technology with a system
More than 35 billion cubic meters of natural gas will flow through the OPAL every year. That equals about a third of Germany’s overall natural gas requirements. The 470-kilometer-long pipeline is made up of 18-metre-long pipes each weighing 15 tonnes. The natural gas will flow through the pipeline at a pressure of up to 100 bar. In order to maintain this pressure there will be a compressor station about half way along the route – probably in Brandenburg south east of Berlin. Natural gas for the Berlin-Brandenburg region will be discharged here before building up the necessary pressure for transporting the rest to the south.
Step by step
Once it has been approved by the authorities, the plan is to start construction of the pipeline in parallel individual sections. For each section the construction workers will set up a working strip for welding the individual pipe segments and excavating the pipe trenches. Once the welded seams have been thoroughly checked several times, the pipes undergo a final “stress test”. For this the engineers subject the pipeline to a hydrostatic test in which it has to bear much greater pressure than in subsequent standard operations. This way they can be absolutely certain that the pipeline will be able to stand the pressure during future operations.
In dialogue
Before the construction work can begin, the relevant government agencies and local authorities consider which factors of the route planning and the laying of the pipeline have to be considered over a large area. In this regional planning procedure (Raumordnungsverfahren) various planning options are examined under ecological, economic, cultural and social perspectives. After this has been completed, the real planning permission process begins, the so-called planning approval process (Planfeststellungsverfahren). This process, in which the public is invited to participate, brings together all the relevant legislative issues from nature protection to immissions protection to the protection of historical monuments – and, of course, it includes the environmental impact assessments. The planning process concludes with the planning approval – the authorisation to build the pipeline.
