2-847-839 - Historic England Archive/Heritage Images

A row of Caterpillar 583 pipelayers with side booms, lifting the Fens gas pipeline into a recently dug trench. Work on laying the Fens gas pipeline started in June 1967 and was a joint venture between Laing Civil Engineering and French companies Entrepose and Grands Travaux de Marseille (GTM) for the Gas Council. Over 600 men worked on the project to lay 36 inch diameter steel pipes starting at West Winch in Norfolk and running to where it linked up with the next contract at Woodcroft Castle in Cambridgeshire. The pipeline crossed four rivers and numerous dykes and ditches.