Investing in your gas supply Old Town Edinburgh
We will soon be starting work in Edinburgh’s Old Town to upgrade our gas network in the High Street, Blackfriars Street, Cowgate, Holyrood Road and St John Street.
Our essential work involves replacing old All businesses in the local area will remain metal pipework, which is around 120 years old, open as usual. We do have a compensation with modern plastic pipe. This will ensure a scheme in place for small businesses which continued safe and reliable gas supply for the suffer a genuine loss of trade because of our local community for many years to come. The work. Packs are available from our website, modern plastic pipe has a minimum lifespan of sgn.co.uk, via the Publications section. around 80 years. All being well, our work should be Following consultation with the local completed in October. authority, Police Scotland, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and local bus companies, If you have any enquiries about this project, our work will start on Monday 20 March please call us on 0131 469 1728 during office and take approximately 28 weeks. hours (9am to 5pm) or on 0800 912 1700 outwith these times. We’ll do everything we can to minimise disruption. At times during our work there will You’ll find further details, such as where be some diversions and road closures in place, we’ll be working, overleaf. however, our work has been planned to be carried out in phases, and around high profile To explain more about our work we are events which take place in the area, to minimise holding a drop-in session at the Radisson inconvenience and keep traffic flowing. Blu Hotel, 80 High Street, The Royal Mile, Edinburgh, EH1 1TH, on Wednesday 15 Our work will continue during the Edinburgh March between 4pm and 7.30pm. Please Festival and Fringe. We will be working away feel welcome to drop in to speak to us if from the main festival area during this time. you have any questions about this project.
Pedestrian access will be maintained at all times. Where is the work taking We are place? sorry about any inconvenience our work causes and would like to thank road users and residents for their patience. This is a complex engineering project, however we always aim to minimise disruption whenever possible.
Key Phase 1: Phase 2: Phase 3: Phase 4: Phase 5: Phase 6: Phase 7: Phase 8:
Our work is planned to take place in phases to ensure traffic can flow around our work area, with the minimum disruption possible. Each phase will usually start as the previous phase finishes, however, there will be certain points during the project where we will be working in two locations at the same time. Advance notice signage will be put in place before our work starts in each location. During the phases of our work, the diversions shown on the following pages will be in place.
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Phase 1 Road closure in High Street Bus routes and Blackfriars Street During the High Street road closure Diversion Lothian bus service 35 will be diverted • St Mary’s Street/Pleasance/ via Regent Road and North Bridge — West Richmond Street/ stops in Abbeymount, Canongate and 1 South Bridge, and reverse High Street will be missed out.
• Blackfriars Street Traffic will enter and exit Blackfriars Street from Cowgate
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To access this leaflet in an alternative format please call 0800 912 1700
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Phase 4 Diversions • Cowgate will be a one-way system — westbound side of road closed • St Mary’s Street — Canongate/Horse Wynd/Queen’s Drive/Holyrood Gait/ Holyrood Road • St Mary’s Street for Cowgate — High Street/South Bridge/Chambers Street/ 4 Bristol Place/Forrest Road/Candlemaker Row • St Mary’s Street for Holyrood Road and Pleasance — The Royal Mile/ Canongate/Horse Wynd/Queen’s Drive/Holyrood Gait/Holyrood Road • Dalkeith Road (city bound) — Dalkeith Road/East Preston Street/South Clerk Street (A7)/Nicolson Street/South Bridge/Blair Street • Pleasance — Cowgate/West Richmond Street/Nicolson Street/ South Bridge/Blair Street
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D G M E H IC Diversion R T S High Street/St Mary’s Street/Cowgate,E and reverse • W • Westbound — Pleasance/West Richmond Street/Richmond Place/ West Adam Street/East Adam Street/Pleasance/St Mary’s Street/ High Street (only when the Cowgate is closed westbound from 5 Holyrood Road)
To access this leaflet in an alternative format please call 0800 912 1700
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Phase 6 Westbound road closure Diversion • Northbound — St Mary’s Street/High Street/South Bridge/ Chambers Street/Bristol Place/Forrest Road/Candlemaker Row • Southbound — Pleasance/West Richmond Street/South Bridge/ 6 Chambers Street/Bristol Place/Forrest Road/Candlemaker Row
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D G M E H IC R T S E W Phase 7 Closure of Holyrood Road Bus routes between St John Street During the Holyrood Road closure and Viewcraig Gardens Lothian bus service 6 will be diverted Diversion via Canongate — stops in St Mary’s Street • St Mary’s Street/The Royal and Holyrood Road will be missed out. 7 Mile/Canongate/Horse Wynd/Queen’s Drive/ Holyrood Gait, and reverse
To access this leaflet in an alternative format please call 0800 912 1700
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D G M E H Work area: IC R T S Diversion: E W
Phase 8 Closure in High Street Bus routes and Blackfriars Street During the High Street road closure Diversion Lothian bus service 35 will be diverted • St Mary’s Street/Pleasance/ via Regent Road and North Bridge — West Richmond Street/ stops in Abbeymount, Canongate and 8 South Bridge, and reverse High Street will be missed out.
• Traffic will enter and exit Blackfriars Street from Cowgate
S T L E O N Smell gas? A R D 0800 912 1700 ’S S T R E E S T O U TH
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S TR T E REE E ST T ON ST D RE A ST P L EA K E IT H R O A D Due to the size of the pipes we are laying we need to dig large, deep excavations.
There are also many other pipes and cables in the street belonging to other utilities.
This means our work takes some time to complete as we need to dig through the surface of the road and layers below, and safely work our way around the other utilities’ equipment.
Due to the nature of the work, the size and weight of the pipes, the heavy plant and machinery which is used, along with necessary safety protection zones, we need a certain amount of space in which to work. When we are working in historic areas have been a very grand building in its day. such as Edinburgh’s Old Town we employ The Cardinal was a key political figure in the an archaeologist to observe our excavations mid 16th Century. every step of the way and ensure any A stream once ran along the Cowgate. features and artefacts are archaeologically This was where the waste from Blackfriars recorded. This is a requirement outlined Street flowed. The soil here is likely to by the City of Edinburgh Council’s be very waterlogged, meaning there is Archaeology Service (CECAS). potential for preserved items like leather, Our excavations in the areas we are working wood, coins, animal bones, and pottery could potentially reveal items and structures to be located here. of archaeological importance. As we dig, At the junction of the Pleasance with the soil around our gas mains pipe will be the Cowgate there was once a large, carefully removed with the supervision of the grand entrance gate to the city. archaeologist. The soil will then be analysed and any small items of archaeological During the Renaissance period wealthy significance removed. The results will then people built mansions around the Holyrood be assessed by a wide range of specialists — Road area, as they wanted to be next to the from historians and environmental scientists, Abbey (where Holyrood Palace now sits), to experts in ceramics and animal bones. which would have been the most grand building of the day, with the exception of Edinburgh Castle. In addition to their houses, The five main areas of archaeological they built gardens — these incorporated interest are: elaborate designs such as the saltire which were marked out using stone or gravel. Blackfriars Street which was originally only around one third of the width it is now. Heading downhill from the Royal Mile it’s likely that the right hand side of the street was the original boundary of the road. There was a major fire at one point which led to most of the left hand side of Blackfriars Street being razed to the ground. The left hand side of the street was rebuilt in the 1860s. Wooden houses were replaced by stone buildings so fire couldn’t spread again. The new houses in Blackfriars Street replaced once high status 16th Century properties which became notorious slums in the 19th Century. Cardinal Beaton’s house which sat at the bottom of Blackfriars Street at its junction with the Cowgate. This would Your questions answered...
Q. Why are you doing this work now? Q. Why are you taking so much room? A. We need to replace these old gas mains A. The existing 30 inch diameter pipe is and while there is no ideal time to carry being replaced with a 630mm diameter out the work, the timescales have been pipe. The track required for this pipe agreed with the local council and other could be as deep as 2.5m and 1.5m wide. interested parties. Our work will take Heavy machinery including 8 tonne approximately 28 weeks to complete. excavators, dumper trucks, pipe (12m lengths), team vehicles and Hiab lorries Q. How will it affect my local area and will need to be able to access our site. travel? A. Sometimes we need to use temporary Q. How can I find out more about the traffic lights or close a road to keep the work and how it might affect me? public and our engineers safe while the A. We’ll do our best to keep customers work is taking place. We’ll always provide informed. After all, the work we are planning advance notification if this is the case. is for your safety. We have our established channels, including our website and social As the local authority always looks to media, as well as press releases for local co-ordinate planned roadworks wherever media, update flyers and leaflets such as possible, we need their permission to this one. We would welcome any ideas close roads. If our work affects local about other ways we can communicate bus services, this will be advertised in with you to help raise awareness of what advance too. we’re doing, such as details of community Q. How else might I be affected? Facebook pages and independent A. Some on-street parking in your road may websites, to which we can supply updates be restricted to ensure certain stages of as the work progresses. Please email any our work can be completed safely. We’ll suggestions to [email protected]. let you know when this is necessary, as If you would like to speak to us in person, your co-operation in keeping sections please join us at the Radisson Blu Hotel, of the road clear helps keep our work 80 High Street, The Royal Mile, Edinburgh, on schedule. EH1 1TH, on Wednesday 15 March, any time between 4pm and 7.30pm. We may need to take up space in the road or on the verge for a site storage area for You may already know us as Scotland Gas our equipment. We’ll restore any areas Networks but we’ve changed our name, we’ve disturbed as quickly as possible logo and branding to SGN. We’re still the after the project is finished. We’ll also same company and our local experts are make good all road surfaces, pavements still committed to delivering your gas and driveways. reliably and keep you safe.
Every year we give our people a day on company time to team up and work on community projects of their own choice. We are always looking for other projects to complete so if you have any suggestions for your community please call Julie Lowrey on 01689 881 481.