WORK on the second leg of a multi-million pound pipeline project is set to begin this month with diggers already rolling into place, reports Ellie Hargreaves.

National Grid engineers are gearing up to resume building what will ultimately be a 94km high-pressure gas main between Pannal, near Harrogate, and Nether Kellet.

Giant yellow tubes, which will eventually feed gas from Norway to homes and businesses across the North West, have become a familiar sight at roadside depots throughout North Yorkshire and Lancashire over the past year.

After trenches are excavated, the 60ft pipes, which weigh in at 7.5 tonnes each, will be welded together above ground and safety-tested before being buried beneath fields and roads on the final 30km stretch of the pipeline from Settle northwards.

As well as snaking beneath the River Lune at Gressingham, the pipes will pass by Austwick, Newby, Wennington and Hornby before reaching Nether Kellet by the autumn.

Once finished, the underground pipeline will be capable of carrying 20 per cent of the UK's gas requirements.

For full story see this week's Westmorland Gazette.