The NEL project
NEL is one of the largest pipeline projects in Germany, measuring 440 kilometers. There-fore, building it requires extreme precision on the part of the planning engineers: the pipe-line route has to take into consideration factors like nature conservation, geography, safety and economic efficiency in equal measure. Sophisticated technology and a planning process that involves all representatives of public interests guarantee that all these factors are given due consideration.
NEL will begin where the Nord Stream offshore pipeline comes on land in Lubmin near Greifswald and run in a westerly direction through Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to Lower Saxony. From Lubmin the 440-kilometer-long pipeline will first head for the Meck-lenburg Lake District. Between Güstrow and Teterow it will then continue in the direction of Schwerin before crossing the Elbe at Hittbergen near Lauenburg. South of Hamburg NEL passes near the town of Winsen on the river Luhe. From Seevetal the pipeline then runs through the Nordheide parallel to the A1 as far as Achim near Bremen. Finally, after passing through the moor landscape near Syke and Bassum, it then reaches Rehden (near Vechta) where the natural gas is either stored or fed into the existing gas pipeline network.
More than 20 billion cubic meters of natural gas will flow through NEL every year. That equals about a third of Germany’s overall natural gas requirements.
Step by step
Once it has been approved by the authorities, construction of individual sections of the pipeline will commence in parallel. For each section the construction workers will set up a working strip for welding the individual pipe segments and excavating the pipe trenches. Once the welded seams have been thoroughly checked several times, the pipes undergo a final “stress test”. The engineers subject the pipeline to a hydrostatic test in which it has to bear much greater pressure than in subsequent standard operations. This way they can be absolutely certain that the pipeline will be able to stand the pressure during future op-erations.
In dialogue
Before the construction work can begin, the relevant government agencies and local au-thorities consider which factors of the route planning and the laying of the pipeline have to be considered over a large area. In this regional planning procedure (Raumordnungsver-fahren) various planning options are examined under ecological, economic, cultural and social perspectives. After this has been completed, the real planning permission process begins, the so-called planning approval process (Planfeststellungsverfahren). This process, in which the public is invited to participate, brings together all the relevant legislative issues from nature protection to immissions protection to the protection of historical monuments – and, of course, it includes the environmental impact assessments. The planning process concludes with the planning approval – the permit to build the pipeline.
