Two German companies have begun construction of a 180 km (112 mile), 42 in. diameter natural gas pipeline from Salzwedel to Bernau, northeast of Berlin.
Verbundnetz Gas AG (VNG), Leipzig, and Ruhrgas AG, Essen, are sharing equally the project investment of about 560 million marks ($336 million).
Work has begun on three sections: near Salzwedel on the border of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt and in the Osterburg and Bernau districts.
Crossings of the Elbe and Havel rivers and Havel and Oder-Havel canals were completed in mid-1993.
The pipeline, to be commissioned in December, will add an east-west link to VNG's north-south oriented grid in eastern Germany.
It will be able to feed gas from the Norwegian North Sea to all areas served by the VNG grid and help meet rising demand around Berlin, Saxony-Anhalt, and Mecklenburg-western Pomerania.
The pipe has a 16.2 mm (0.64 in.) WT. Maximum pipeline pressure will be 1,220 psi.
