What's happening on site?

Ongoing and recently completed work

Reptile translocation work - this entails the rehoming of reptiles by ecologists from areas that will be affected by construction (either side of the A47) to a suitable alternative site in West Norfolk. We started this work at the beginning of April and it has continued throughout May and June and will be completed once five "non-trapping days" have been recorded. The numbers of reptiles trapped and subsequently rehomed has been decreasing, but our threshold of five "non-trapping days" has not yet been reached. Fences that are already in place will remain in place until construction starts to prevent any reptiles from accessing the site.
Our ecological contractor has set up cameras on site to survey a single entrance mammal burrow we have identified to ascertain if a particular species is using it or whether it is dormant.

National Gas updates:

National Gas completed setting up their site off New Road, which included creating a new entrance and access track. Traffic management is now in place for this site, with all construction traffic only turning left out of site to utilise the A47, not driving through North Runcton.
Site set-up work was also being completed at National Gas's Chequers Lane site at the time of writing this update in late June. There may be a few larger deliveries to coincide with this, which might cause some minor short-term disruption. This setup work is taking place ahead of construction on the high-pressure gas main diversion works starting at the end of June.
The Public Right of Way (PRoW) at Illington Lane is now fully closed. This temporary closure is expected to remain in place until Spring 2027 for safety reasons. If you have any questions or concerns, you can contact National Gas as follows:
- Email: [email protected]
- Post: Community, National Gas Transmission, National Grid House, Warwick Technology Park, Gallows Hill, Warwick, CV34 6DA
- Website: www.nationalgas.com/wwgd

Some minor site clearance work is due to be carried out to remove some low-level shrubs to the west of Sheep's Course Wood following on from the reptile translocation work. This hadn't begun at time of writing in late June, but it might begin before the end of June or in July and should only take a few days.
Archaeological trial trenching works will take place in the area to the west of Sheep's Course Wood once the translocation and site clearance work has been completed. The aim is to identify if there are any artefacts in the ground that need to be carefully excavated before construction begins, which would help to prevent potential delays during the construction period. We anticipate this work will take a minimum of two weeks.

National Gas updates:

National Gas will begin main mobilisation at their New Road site from the end of June into July. Initial activities will include installing fencing around their main compound, and preparing the area with a base layer of stone to stabilise the ground. Main construction works here are expected to begin towards the end of the month.
At the Chequers Lane site, main construction activities will commence, with excavation of the new diversion taking place at the back end of June/early July. Machinery will be operating on site more frequently from this point on. This increased activity is required to support the next phase of works and National Gas's teams will continue to monitor and minimise disruption.
Initial site works will also commence during July at a third National Gas site in a field west of the A10 towards the northern end of West Winch village. The work at this site will be more limited in comparison to the two main sites - it will be used to isolate National Gas's pipeline whilst the main works are carried out at their site off New Road. The tarmac entrance to this site has already been completed, and initial work setting up fencing and stabilising the ground surface with stone will take place shortly.

We anticipate that ground investigation works will be carried out now that our design and build contractor has been appointed. This is expected to take place during autumn 2026.

This page is updated regularly by the project team. It was last updated on 26 June 2026.