£8million to improve Sunderland's electricity network - how it will affect you

Northern Powergrid, the company responsible for region’s electricity network, is investing the money to replace 11.6 kilometres of 66,000 volt underground electricity cables on both sides of the Wear.

Work will be carried out by the electricity distributor’s contractor Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions and is due to start on Monday.

The cable replacement will be carried out in stages, starting with the installation of ducting on both sides of the Wear. This first stage will be carried out by two teams, to speed up the work and help reduce disruption to local residents and businesses.

The second stage will see excavations in North Hylton Road, Redhill Road and Red House Park north of the river and and Lisburn Terrace, Neville Road, St Luke’s Road and European Way on the south bank.

This will allow the new cables to be pulled through the installed ducts and connected to the network.

The new cables will then be energised, securing the power supply to the area for the future.

Project engineer Dave Smith said: "We’re committed to ensuring the communities we serve have a reliable electricity supply and this major £8million investment we’re making in Sunderland’s power network will benefit our customers and the city for decades to come.

"As with any construction, there will be some potential disruption to traffic during the work, but we’ll be making every effort to minimise the impact for local people and businesses by increasing the workforce to complete the work as soon as possible. We hope that residents and motorists will bear with us during the construction work as we invest in their community.

Work will be carried out on the new cable route in North Sunderland on the following dates:

· Redhill Road - 21 November to 9 January

· Rhodesia Road - 10 January to 23 January

· Castletown Way - 10 January to 30 January (overnight working)

· Castletown Way- 31 January to 6 March (daytime working)

· Redhouse Park - 24 January to 13 February

· Hylton Road - 7 March to 15 May

· Aged Miners Cottages - 16 May to 30 May

Work will be carried out on the new cable route in South Sunderland on the following dates:

· European Way - 21 November to 9 January

· Neville Road -21 November to 16 January

· St Luke’s Road - 10 January to 27 March

· Lisburn Terrace - 17 January to 30 January

· Pallion New Road - 31 January to 20 February (overnight working)

· Pallion New Road slip road - 21 February to 3 March (daytime working)

· Deptford Terrace - 6 March to 15 March

Northern Powergrid has written to local residents where the works will take place to update them on the investment in their local community and courtesy boards will remain on site during all phases of the construction.

Anyone with an enquiry can contact Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions 24-hour helpline on 0800 121 4444 or Northern Powergrid’s customer care team on 0800 298 7769 (Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm) or by emailing cus.serv@northernpowergrid.com.