UK’s National Grid Removes Pylons from Area of Natural Beauty

The Peak District in the center of England is a major destination for tourists and walkers. Unfortunately, like many beauty spots in the UK, the view is marred in places by essential electricity pylons, often constructed years ago when the visual landscape was considered less important than delivering power.

The National Grid, together with local stakeholders, has removed seven pylons and around one mile (1.5 km) of overhead electricity cabling to finish a project to reinstall the power lines underground. The final phase of the project included improved parking and biodiversity enhancements to add to the benefits of the upgraded area of the National Park.

The National Grid’s project team celebrated the completion of its Visual Impact Provision (VIP) project which has successfully transformed the landscape in the Peak District National Park and along a popular stretch of the Trans-Pennine Trail, following the completion of an extensive program of enhancement works.

The car park improvements included resurfacing, adding speed bumps for improved safety, marking out new parking bays (including dedicated accessible parking spaces and horse box spaces), introducing new landscaping and planting, adding a turning circle for the local bus service and restoring the popular picnic area to its full capacity.

The Peak District project is one of the first schemes in the world to remove existing high-voltage electricity transmission infrastructure – sited there since the 1960s – solely to enhance the landscape.

The complex construction and engineering program involved running new cables below the ground, with expert teams joining forces with local contractors at each stage of the project from cable jointing to pylon removal.

National Grid’s team has also been commended for achieving a planned 18 per cent biodiversity net gain for the project, overturning its initial target of ten per cent. Additional habitat for wildlife was created and the extent of permitted tree removal was greatly reduced.

One major conservation success involved the rare and endangered willow tit. Two pairs of this threatened songbird successfully nested within the development site at Wogden Foot, in vegetation that could have been removed in other circumstances without the skill and sensitivity of the project team.

Leanne Evans, Senior Project Manager for National Grid says, “We’re extremely proud to have set a high environmental benchmark on this scheme and to have demonstrated what can be accomplished by collectively doing the right thing. It proves that sensitive environmental management is possible on major projects, even in the most challenging of locations.”