Tunnelling Complete on £150m Hinkley Point C Fish Return Pipeline
A five-month drive has completed the 620m, 1.8m-diameter seabed tunnel that will return fish to the Bristol Channel, part of £700m in marine protection measures at Hinkley Point C.
- Section
- Construction
- Author
- By Marcus Bennett
- Filed
- Length
- 1 min read
Key takeaways
- The £150m fish return pipeline runs 620 metres under the seabed with a 1.8m diameter
- Hinkley Point C is spending £700m in total on fish protection measures
- The TBM, named 'Sarah Guppy' by local school children, was retrieved by floating crane after five months of tunnelling
Tunnelling work has finished on a £150m pipeline that forms Hinkley Point C's fish return system.
The completed tube runs 620 metres under the seabed and measures 1.8 metres in diameter. Its purpose is specific: any fish that stray toward the power station's water intake will be sent back to the Bristol Channel through the pipeline rather than lost to the cooling system.
Specialist contractor Joseph Gallagher carried out the tunnelling work alongside Kier and Bam.
The pipeline is one component of a wider environmental programme. Hinkley Point C is spending a total of £700m on fish protection measures, which include underwater speakers designed to deter marine life from the intake area and specially designed low-speed water inlet heads that reduce the risk of fish being drawn in.
The tunnelling phase took five months. A floating crane has now retrieved the tunnel boring machine so it can be taken away, cleaned and redeployed on another site.
Local school children named the TBM "Sarah Guppy" after the pioneering 19th century engineer from Bristol, continuing the tunnelling tradition of naming boring machines before they begin work.
With the tunnel in place, attention shifts to fitting out the pipeline and completing the wider fish protection system, part of the environmental commitments attached to the nuclear plant's construction.
Source: Construction Enquirer
