Around a kilometer-long tunnel under the river / EUGAL project on schedule
Anklam/Kassel. The tunnel under the river Peene, to the west of Anklam, is around a kilometer in length. It is through this tunnel that the second string of the European Gas Pipeline Link is currently being laid.
Around 55 sections of pipe – each around 18 meters long and weighing 15 tonnes – welded together make up a pipeline string just under a kilometer in length. A powerful machine is pulling this pipeline string through the 2.40-meter wide, already completed tunnel under the river.
Around 30 construction specialists have been working on making this step possible since October 2019. Pulling the string through the tunnel is expected to be completed by the middle of this week.
EUGAL runs through Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania over a length of around 102 kilometers. The first string has already been completed. Around two thirds of the second string in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are in the ground and the accompanying pipe trenches have been backfilled.
Ludger Hümbs, Chief Project Manager for the EUGAL project, is satisfied with how construction is progressing. “We are right on schedule with EUGAL. All the construction work is within the planned time frame. The first string of the pipeline is already complete and has been transporting natural gas according to plan since 1 January 2020.
Looking at 2020, Hümbs explains: “The second string and our compressor station in Brandenburg should be completed by the end of the year. After that, the full transport capacity of EUGAL of up to 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year will then be available.”
