FORTY years after the main cross-Severn gas pipe was smashed in the Severn Rail Bridge disaster, pipes across – or rather under – the river into the Forest are to be reinstated.
This time says Transco, the pipeline division of British Gas, the plan is to run them deep under the river bed, although a spokeswoman stressed that many months of feasibility and environmental impact studies have first to be completed.
It was in October 1960 that two laden fuel tankers, the Arkendale and Wastdale, overran the entrance to Sharpness Docks in fog, drifted on the tide into one of the iron piers of the Sharpness-Lydney rail bridge and exploded. Five seamen were lost.
More than 100 yards of of the bridge with the gas pipe which ran across it fell into the river, which was ablaze with a mixture of petrol and oil.
"People in the Forest of Dean area were warned by a BBC statement and personal calls not to use gas until further notice," states a newspaper report of the time. Police cars also toured the region giving warnings over loudspeakers – there were fears that because air had entered the mains the resultant mixture would be explosive.
Although estimates reckoned the 1879-built bridge would be repaired within two years Foresters were left with the immediate problems of cooking and heating. Oil, solid fuel and Calor gas stoves and heaters were distributed to households and businesses.
The bridge was never rebuilt, and eventually a new gas main was driven along the route of the A48 from Gloucester into the Forest.
Increasing demands on this main are making the cross-river pipeline desirable, says Transco, although it could not yet state exactly where the pipe will run or how much its construction would cost.