TAMESIDE will see more than 15 kilometres of its oldest gas mains replaced as part of £75 million worth of work.
Cadent has confirmed its investment as it looks to update a total of 385 kilometres in the north west.
Locally, the area will see more than 15,000 metres worked on until March 2026.
Upgrading the network means 2.7 million properties receive a safe and reliable gas supply for many years to come.
And Tameside will not see the most work, with the ‘top five’ workload areas for 2025-26 being Wirral (40,668 metres), Liverpool (30,844 metres), Manchester (26,228 metres), St Helens (19,952 metres), and Wigan (19,196 metres).
The borough comes eighth in the list as homes, schools, hospitals and other buildings use gas for heat and hot water, some of the region’s biggest industries need it to power production processes and it is the fuel of choice for rising numbers of HGV fleets.
Cadent works with authorities to agree the best and least disruptive timings to carry out these essential upgrades.
It will also collaborate with other utilities, to find opportunities to work together in the same set of roadworks.
Once start dates have been confirmed, letters are sent to properties impacted ahead of the work starting.
Part of the programme also involves replacing individual ‘service’ pipes of tens of thousands of properties at no extra cost for customers. Cadent makes all the arrangements and gives advance notice of when work will happen.
Gas remains on throughout, although in some cases properties that take a direct feed from the pipe being replaced will lose supply for up to 12 hours, as their building is connected to the new main.
“The majority of homes in the North West rely on gas for central heating and it’s our job to make sure they get it, safely and reliably, every minute of every day of the year,” said Mark Syers, Cadent’s head of work management (North West), who leads the team delivering gas mains upgrade work in the region.
“As our older stock reaches the end of its safe working life, we must replace it.
“These upgrades also mean big environmental gains for the region, as it reduces methane emissions and enables a move to more renewable gases like biomethane.
“This is essential for a cleaner future – the UK will need energy to come from a range of sources to meet demand and be sustainable.
“In most cases – around 95 per cent of the time – we are able to insert the new plastic pipe into the old metallic one. This technique reduces the time of each project and we don’t have to dig as much, which means less disruption for local communities.
“The upgrades also mean an end to what can often become return visits – with associated disruption – to repair faults on the older metallic mains, as they start to show signs of age.
“We know roadworks aren’t ideal, but my team is determined to move as quickly as they safely can and get the work done with as little disruption as possible.”