The priority customer will be Arrabawn but several other large scale premises have also come on board and it's hoped the town will be connected up fully by next autumn.
The project will begin in November and the first works will be in bringing the line to Nenagh – it will come in from Birdhill up the old N7 to the Five Alley Pub – and into Nenagh – that's a 17km stretch.
The network in the town itself will be a 14 km stretch and the Bord Gais representatives say that Arabawn will be the first priority and it was pointed out in the council that the Co-ops Connor Ryan has been hugely instrumental in bringing the gas line to the north Tipp town and that it's getting increasingly difficult to get these kind of projects across the line unless there are huge industries present.
Once the feeder is in it should be connected to Arabawn by June 2015 along with a number of other big industries that have expressed interest like ABP and the hospital – then the focus will be on the town and that should take three months either June to August or August to October – Bord Gais will have an exact time scale on that in January or February
The Bord Gais representatives were quite frank about the fact that there will be significant disruption as they are effectively digging trenches in the roads and say you simply can't get away from that. But they pointed out that there will be constant consultation with all the stakeholders and will give plenty of notice ahead of works, they will be liaising regularly with Gardai, the Council and will be very mindful of digging around schools for example and aim to make the disruption as minimal as possible. Also they won't be digging up all streets at the same time but section by section. Natural gas has already been installed in Tipp Town, Cahir and Cashel and the company representatives pointed out that those projects were very successful they will also have some one on the ground to deal with all queries
The project was warmly welcomed for the most part and the concerns expressed centred mainly on disruption during the tourist season. They also welcomed the fact that such projects attract new business, will lead to local employment during construction and the spin off for electrical contractors etc.
