Remote gas pipeline on the property

Before you buy the property, I recommend a conversation with the owner of the gas pipeline.

Relocation is not an option, you can forget about that.

The key question is how large the remaining building window is? Consider the whole thing with a buffer! The pipeline plans are often of poor quality. If you want to plan directly on the protective strip, the pipeline must be manually located/measured and possibly exposed. The plans and, if necessary, locating can be requested from the operator, should be free of charge - however, you should have this confirmed in writing. Locating then takes several weeks/months, sometimes with questionable results.

If the remaining building window is large enough, it can be done.

Best regards Dirk Grafe

Location and exploratory excavation will certainly not be free, possibly within the scope of a building permit procedure, but then one should already own the property...

Locating and exploratory excavation will certainly not be free of charge, possibly within the framework of a building permit procedure, but then you should already own the property...

Sorry if I have to disagree here: locating is indeed free of charge if the plans from the utility providers/operators are not accurate enough to continue planning based on today's standards.

You have to understand where the problem lies. For example, if a gas pipeline was laid 30 years ago and there was only farmland visible five kilometers left and right of the pipeline, it is logical that it was only measured and documented precisely enough to find the pipeline again in an emergency. Whether, in the event of a repair, a row of grain falls more or less on the left or right is/was irrelevant.

If the area is replanned with development 30 years later, this level of accuracy is usually no longer sufficient. The utility providers have their own measurement teams who re-measure the lines in such cases/areas and then make these data available to the planners. Of course also out of their own interest (!).

This takes time – but is available free of charge, experienced that several times myself.

A quick alternative is to plan, for example, one meter additional distance on top of the required width of the protection corridor if there is space available.

Kind regards
Dirk Grafe

The water pipe as well as the power line were installed by us. Both were located and found by a team using old map material. The water pipe is now under the driveway and the power line required a wooden pole. Both were free of charge for us.