Billion-pound pipeline goes 'trenchless' to protect famous beach

WORK WILL BE SCHEDULED AROUND BREEDING PATTERN OF BIRD SPECIES

- By ANDREW FORGRAVE

A MULTI-BILLION pound project to lay pipes on the North Wales coast has been tweaked to accommodate shipping lanes - and a tiny bird.

A pipeline is planned at Talacre, Flintshire, to shift carbon dioxide (CO2) captured from industrial plants under the sea to empty gas reservoirs beneath Liverpool Bay.

The Point of Ayr terminal is to be modified so it can receive and export CO2 to offshore fields for storage.

The proposed pipeline will also carry electric and fibre optic cables from Talacre to the New Douglas offshore platform.

The two-year HyNet North West Project was green-lighted last year, and received a marine licence in May.

But a new pipeline route is planned and the developer has also given more details about the way it is being laid.

During construction, the works will have a major impact on the village of Talacre and some effects on the tens of thousands of holidaymakers who visit its famous beach each year.

Works and deliveries will be scheduled outside peak tourism periods “as far as practicable”.

Following concerns raised about the potential impact on vessel movements in and out of the Port of Mostyn, the pipeline has been realigned some 250 metres further east along Talacre beach.

This will place it an extra 250 metres (2.3km in total) away from the little tern colony at Gronant dunes in neighbouring Denbighshire.