The contract with partners PORR and A.Hak is worth nearly £40m to Skanska and will see the existing pipeline, which lies on the riverbed, replaced with a 5km tunnel route.

Planning consent for the replacement pipeline is due from the Planning Inspectorate in September 2016.

Over the three-year project the team will insert a single string of 42” steel pipe and connect into the above-ground installations at Paull, east of Hull, and Goxhill on the opposite bank of the Humber.

Phil Croft, National Grid’s senior project manager said: “This pipeline will be the longest gas pipeline in a tunnel, inserted in a single string in the world.

“To do this we need partners with experience and a proven track record. Skanska, PORR and A.Hak were able to demonstrate their expertise and knowledge throughout the tender process, giving us the confidence that this was the right company to build this tunnel and pipeline in such an environmentally sensitive and commercially busy river.”

Colin Nicol, operations director, Skanska said: “The joint venture was formed to bring together international expertise to deliver, in an innovative, sustainable and collaborative way, a tunnel that will protect the pipeline for the long term, helping National Grid to provide a vital service to millions of people.”

The River Humber pipeline is part of the national transmission system – connecting the import terminal at Easington, on the East Yorkshire coast, to the wider network and delivering gas to millions of customers throughout the UK. 

Over time, the tidal patterns of the River Humber have eroded the river bed covering the existing pipeline, leading to parts of it being at risk of being exposed.