- Essential work will help keep local residents connected to safe and reliable gas supplies for cooking and heating
- Work will involve temporary road closure in town centre
- Access maintained for pedestrians and local shops and businesses open as normal
Engineers are scheduled to replace ageing gas mains with tough new pipes which should last for decades in Bedford this summer.
An essential gas mains replacement project which will help ‘future-proof’ the local gas mains network has been scheduled to begin Monday 17 July. The work will involve replacing the ageing metallic gas mains in the High Street between the junction with St Paul’s Square and up to shortly before the junction with Alice Street. Tough new pipes which should last for decades will replace the old pipes with the work currently expected to last five weeks.
To enable work to be carried out safely a road closure will be implemented in the High Street between Monday 17 July and Sunday 23 July. From Monday 24 July one lane of the High Street will reopen and it will stay open for the remainder of the work. Pedestrians will have full access to the street throughout the project and businesses will remain open as normal. Signs will also be put up to remind people that businesses will be open as usual.
Cadent Authorising Engineer Dilbir Chana said: “This essential project will help make sure that the local community keep on enjoying safe and reliable gas supplies for cooking and heating in the future.”
He added: “We’ve carefully planned the work in discussion with the local authority and are doing all we can to deliver the project with as little disruption to people as possible.
“We’ve scheduled as much of the work as we can for the school summer holiday period when roads are generally quieter to reduce any congestion our work may cause.”
The project will also involve replacing gas service pipes to some properties. To do this project engineers will need to temporarily disconnect the gas supplies to the properties involved. Cadent will contact those properties involved to arrange access.
All Cadent engineers carry official identity cards, which people should ask to see before allowing them on their property. To verify an engineer’s identity or for any enquiries about the project people should contact Cadent customer services team on 0800 096 5678.
To find out more about Cadent‘s gas mains replacement work go to
www.bettergaspipes.co.uk