County: Wicklow Site name: HOLLYBROOK–WICKLOW BGE PIPELINE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0509
Author: Ian W. Doyle for Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 731308m, N 694019m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.980821, -6.044589
During the early summer of 2001, following stoppage caused by the Foot and Mouth outbreak, the construction of the Hollybrook to Wicklow Town pipeline resumed. Monitoring had been carried out by Redmond Tobin prior to the disruption. This pipeline, which is to have a length of approximately 24km, is intended to supply Wicklow, Ashford and Rathnew with natural gas. The pipeline originates with a connection to the existing transmission system at Hollybrook Above Ground Installation (AGI) and extends to an AGI at Rossana Lower townland, near Rathnew, Co. Wicklow.
The actual pipe-laying was carried out using a technique known as the ‘spread method’. This involved the fencing off and clearance of an 18–20m-wide strip along the route. Topsoil was stripped, and stringing out and welding of the 300mm-diameter pipe lengths then took place. A trench was then excavated and the pipe was laid in the trench, which was subsequently backfilled. Finally, topsoil was relaid across the spread and fences/boundaries/ drains were reinstated.
The pipeline was mostly laid in fields which are in agricultural use, with the exception of the sections laid in road and in the road crossings. In total, the pipeline traversed agricultural land over 70.7% of its length, with the remaining 29.3% made up of roads and rivers, mostly along the N11.
During the course of monitoring some thirteen previously unrecorded sites were detected and excavated under individual licences by Ian W. Doyle and John Ó Néill. Details are provided elsewhere in this volume.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
