Plans for Crawl Hill Esso in Hamilton parish to be demolished and a modern service station rebuilt in its place have received approval from the Development and Applications Board (DAB).

Plans are for a bigger shop to be built and new underground storage tanks to be installed.

The upgrade to the east end service station is part of an $8 million investment that Esso Bermuda is carrying out over the next two years.

Three sites have been marked for either demolition and rebuilding or relocation, including the Collectors Hill station in Devonshire, the St.

David's Island station, and the Crawl Hill station.

Esso Bermuda General Manager, Ed Edleson said the company would not start to demolish the current service station until they had ordered new equipment to outfit the new station. And he said they could now begin this process.

The Crawl Hill station is the first to undergo extensive renovations, and Mr.

Edleson said they had an in principle approval to relocate the St. David's service station to Kindley Field Road.

However, the National Trust has objected to the service station being located on Kindley Field, as they said the land was zoned for recreational use and is situated across the road from a national park.

The approval for the Crawl Hill renovation is subject to several conditions, and the planning department have said that in order to safeguard the amenity of the neighbourhood, the hours of operation of the new service station will be restricted to 6 a.m. to midnight.

And in order to provide for the safe flow of traffic, access details must conform to the requirements of the 1992 Bermuda Plan, ensuring that at the point of access onto the public road, sight lines for a minimum distance of 90 feet can be achieved in either direction from a point six feet back from the edge of the carriageway.

The DAB has also said there must be parking and manoeuvring spaces for 14 cars.

Last year, Esso, an Exxon Corporation subsidiary which has been in Bermuda for 92 years, commissioned a review of its services on the Island, and found that upgrading was required across the Island. A plan was put forward and accepted by shareholders.

Included in Esso's planned upgrades is a $5 million renovation of the Esso pier in Ferry Reach which is also used by Shell.