The contract covers the manufacture of six test pylons based at National Grid’s Eakring Training Academy which will stand at a height of just 35 metres, or 10 to 15 metres shorter than traditional lattice towers.
“The test line at Eakring will allow us to fully rehearse how we might construct and maintain the T-pylon when in use and this contract with Mabey Bridge marks the start of that journey,” said National Grid’s director of electricity transmission asset management, David Wright.
The new generation of pylon was chosen from 250 designs submitted as part of an international competition organised by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, Royal Institute of British Architects and National Grid.
Wright said the aim of the competition was to find a design “which would meet all our safety and reliability criteria and belong to the 21st century”.
The winning design is a single pole and T-shaped cross arms which hold the wires, otherwise known as conductors in a diamond shape.