NGC said today that commissioning of the permanent high-pressure gas pipeline, in a trench across the river near Ashhurst, had been completed and that pipeline was now supplying gas to Hawke’s Bay instead of the “Two Towers”.

The temporary pipeline had been commissioned after February’s severe flooding had washed out the bridge over the river and left NGC’s high-pressure transmission pipeline dangling over floodwaters.

The new permanent river crossing is about 60m downstream of the former bridge location and involved the installation of 540m of 8-inch pipe.