Planned route
Planned route
The OPAL will start where the Nord Stream pipeline comes on shore in Lubmin near Greifswald and run south as far as Olbernhau on the German-Czech border. The 470-kilometer-long track will go through three German states: Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg and Saxony. Other connecting points on the route are planned in order to integrate the OPAL into the existing European gas infrastructure.
It is not always the shortest route, and therefore the most economically advantageous route, that is selected for a pipeline. Likewise, the OPAL will take the route that is best for the people and the environment. The following requirements have to be considered in the detailed planning:
- The conservation of ecologically significant areas
- The protection of infrastructure elements such as transport paths and built-up areas
- The use of existing transport corridors such as streets or railroad lines
- Supply security in Germany and Europe as well as the other connected regions along the pipeline.
The wide planning corridor is then narrowed down to an exact route in a dialogue between the authorities and the building contractors.
Geographical challenges
The pipeline crosses the river Peene on the first section of the route in the north after just a few kilometres. The combination of the dry, sandy soil of the Mark Brandenburg, its pine forests and the various lowland areas represented a particular challenge in terms of planning and construction for the section in Brandenburg. In Saxony, in Meißen/Coswig for example, the pipeline was fed under the river Elbe and crosses the Autobahn A4 between Chemnitz and Dresden. Then the natural gas pipeline reaches the low mountain range landscape, marking the highest point of the route in Olbernhau in the Erz Mountains. Overall, the OPAL encounters an altitude difference of 700 metres over its route.
