WORK is continuing on a project to install a £1 billion high-voltage electricity cable along the length of Wirral, with further public information events set to take place next week.

The cable is part of the Western Link, a joint initiative between National Grid and ScottishPower Transmission to build one of the world’s longest undersea power cables.

It stretches from Scotland down the Irish Sea and will bring renewable energy from Scotland to homes and business in England and Wales.

Towards the end of 2014, around 36 kilometres of cable was laid on the Wirral foreshore at Leasowe and out into Liverpool Bay, while elsewhere on the Wirral peninsula, preparations for cable-laying continued during the year. 

This year will see cable-laying and jointing the sections of underground cable begin.

Two public information events will take place next week, with a newsletter also sent out to those living along the cable route and closer to the converter station.

Graham Edwards, Western Link project director, said: “Our main work takes place during the spring, summer and autumn months and people are likely to see a lot of activity this year from April onwards.  I’d encourage anyone interested to come and talk to our project team at the open events about this essential project.

“To construct the cable along the Wirral, our contractor is establishing a temporary working corridor, around 20m wide, which is fenced off while it is being used.  Within this corridor, we’ll be installing two cables in a single trench.

“The cables will be laid in sections around one kilometre long, with joints where the sections meet.  In some areas temporary large lay-bys will be constructed for the delivery of the cable, which arrives on large drums.  Here, and where our cables cross roads, are where our activities will be most noticeable.”

The cable comes ashore at Leasowe in the north of the Wirral, continuing underground to the east of Heswall and Neston before turning south-west to run between Burton and Puddington towards Deeside Industrial Park, where the new converter station is being built. 

Cables will then be laid under the River Dee to connect to National Grid’s site at Deeside, where the electricity will flow into the existing transmission system. 

The pipes through which these cables will be pulled were installed in autumn 2014 – a major achievement for the project.

National Grid says the underground cable across Wirral will be laid mainly in agricultural fields. 

Some road closures, including one lane of the southbound A540, will be needed.

Mr Edwards added: “Over the next decade we need to invest in our electricity networks to provide energy security and help meet the UK’s carbon reduction targets.  The Western Link will help us meet these challenges.”

The public information events take place at Heswall United Reformed Church, Telegraph Road, Heswall from 1pm until 7pm on Wednesday, April 29.

A second event will take place at the Gladstone Village Hall, Burton, Neston, from 1pm until 7pm on Thursday, April 30.

A series of maps showing the route the cable will take, and time-lapse photography of the cable coming ashore at Leasowe, can be viewed on the project website westernhvdclink.co.uk.