A MULTI-MILLION pound project to transform Darlington town centre has suffered its first major setback - due to a century-old underground pipe.
Engineers working on the £6.5m Pedestrian Heart scheme have discovered the gas main, which serves the west of Darlington, is not buried as deeply as they first thought.
This means that a major project to divert the pipe, installed in 1900, will have to be completed - and the work will take weeks.
Yesterday, Darlington Borough Council was unable to say how much the diversion would cost, but it is likely to delay completion of the whole Pedestrian Heart project.
The gas main runs from the Northgate roundabout through to the Blackwellgate/Skinnergate area. It needs to be diverted between Prospect Place and Horsemarket. Work is still to be done to assess if there will be any impact of this gas main in Blackwellgate and Northgate.
John Buxton, the council's director of development and environment, said: "While work is carried out to divert this pipe, we will do everything we can to keep disruption to a minimum."
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