PIPELINE PLANNING IN THE UK: NAVIGATING A CONSTRAINED LANDSCAPE

摘要

United Utilities Water plc (UU) supplies potable water to approximately one million homes in North West England. In 2006, work began to plan UU's most significant project of the last five years: a new 1200 mm diameter trunk main which, when completed in 2011, will transfer potable water across one of the most densely populated regions of the UK. Planning consent and an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was required for the new bi-directional trunk main, known as the West East Link Main (WELM). Following extensive route corridor investigations, a 55 km route was selected, which passes through eight separate local planning authorities. Approximately two-thirds of the pipeline route lies within agricultural land and the remaining third is within highly populated areas. The planning and construction of this pipeline presented a range of challenges, not least dealing with the sheer number and variety of stakeholders and constraints encountered on the route. These included other utilities, railways, motorways, roads, rivers, canals, golf courses, landfill sites and hundreds of individual landowners and tenants. Despite the optioneering work carried out to minimise social and environmental impacts of the route within the crowded post-industrial landscape of England's North West, inevitably a number of archaeological sites, protected species, locally important habitats and community groups were affected by construction of the pipeline. Using WELM as a case study, this paper looks at specific and innovative responses of the project team to successfully navigate the approvals process for this recent major construction project in the UK water industry.