The design of mitigation to reduce AC interference levels in a pipeline is a relatively straightforward matter
when the mitigation can be installed with the pipeline, at the bottom of the trench. On the other hand, retrofitting
introduces design challenges, which are discussed in this paper. For one thing, the depth of burial of gradient
control wires running parallel to the pipeline is often limited by practical considerations: as a result, the
effectiveness of these wires is reduced by soil freezing in northern climes. A second problem is the frequent need
to interrupt the gradient control wires at road crossings, water bodies, wetlands, and other such obstacles. The
level of protection is obviously compromised to some degree at such locations. It is found that consideration of
the exponentially decreasing nature of soil resistivity with depth, during frozen conditions, can result in a
dramatically improved assessment of mitigation performance. It is also found that, depending upon the soil
structure, gaps of tens of meters in otherwise continuous gradient control wires may yield acceptable
performance.