ENGINEERS building a 40km pipeline across Lancashire and Cheshire -- which fringed Chorley -- have clocked up more than 840,000 working hours, with just four lost time accidents, says Transco.

The gas pipeline company says this is a record, and has earned it a major safety award.

The initiatives put in place by Transco and its contractors to protect the health and wellbeing of the workforce won it a silver award from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA).

In addition, a number of new safety ideas, trialled on the Mawdesley to Warrington pipeline project, are being adopted on other Transco pipelines across the country.