The pipeline work has begun

Yesterday they cut the trees on the ROW. I am supposed to get all the wood, they are supposed to stack it for me along the ROW at a mutually agreed upon location. It crosses my back corner for a distance of 1070' thru my hay field for the most part.

Took these photo's just after I talked to the cutting crew.

This is looking to the top of the ridge where they entered my land. There is already an existing pipelines to the left of this new one. The old line are 36" natural gas, 3 of them along side each other, been there for 50 years or more.


Here you can see where it leaves mine and goes across the neighbors. Old lines are 2 the right in the clearing over the top of the hill.


This new line is for Liquids from the local Utica deep wells. It is a 12" line.

JD,
Whereabouts are you - is that the Iroquois line?
Pete

No this will be the Ohio River Valley pipeline.

I wonder if that is part of the one that will join up with the 2- 42" ones going on up thru Wayne and Ashland counties ?

TransCanada is still working on my property and their Right-of-Way since the explosion back in September. Incident location was in a wetland and a natural gas pipeline that was installed in 1949.

How do you manufacture a pipe strong enough to lay in the ground for 60+ years? Are they 3" thick walled titanium or something like that? lol. Just amazing to me

They wrap them with some kind of plastic which is applied at the mill except for the joints which are bare and beveled. The sections
are 40' long down here. They get them all laid out in a line and propped up on supports. A welding machine comes by, which looks
like a hunting shack, but it has an opening at each end. It does the weld, inspects it and coats the weld with a protectant like the
rest of the line.

The next thing that happens is periodically they run a "bug" down the pipe and it inspects for rusted out spots. That has got to be a
science to itself considering what it does and how long the runs are between stops. Don't know the tech details.

As I said before, these guys are drop dead serious about the line and signs and phone numbers are all down the line. You call them,
even for an administrative reason and a guy is out the next day. Don't know about an emergency but upon notification the flow
would be shut down and within a couple of hours you'd have a rep on your place.

I have a 10 and 13" across the back of my place. Wouldn't know it if it weren't for the signs. Been here 35 years and the easement
was on the deed when I bought the place.

Mark

Back in the day, the transmission lines were either coated with grease or bees wax, then mummy wrapped, actually that old technology worked pretty good and many of the pipelines have surpassed their useful life. Today the pipes are thicker and epoxy coated. Hydrostatic testing is performed after repairs, and a P.I.G (Pipeline Inspection Gadget) flows with the gas and collects data on the pipeline integrity.

I could not believe it when after the crops were out (Planted as soon as the pipe was laid last spring) the pipe line workers were back out and hauled in more dirt and leveled it filling the low spots again. They dug up and hauled away all of the driveways they had built. I can t think of the name of the contractor,red trucks and a lot of them. Michel s, I think.

Yeah, that's what they call it, a PIG. So it's pushed along by the liquid in the line. Solves the "how does it propel itself, fuel, controls issue" thing. Makes sense.

How does it collect data? I assume that it is looking for flaws that could become leaks with potential serious problems, but what's the mechanism?

If it finds a potential problem, and one found one in a low spot in the line on the next property over from me, how does it record the location? On that accord, one day a crew showed up over there, dug a big hole, brought in a section of pipe, did some welding and coating, covered the hole back up and put the surface back as well as could be expected, having disturbed the soil.

When I first got here there was a rumor of being able to tap into the line for free natural gas but that was somebody blowing smoke...... First off, too much of a risk for a leak, second who knows what fuel is going through the line at any given time, third, they might shut down the line for some reason......made for good coffee shop gossip from the "know it alls".

Thanks,
Mark

Some fifteen years ago they put a pipeline through northern NH. it was probably about fifty miles they laid that summer over some pretty rough terrain. I was stopping at a country store for a snack and there was a low-bed in the lot with a sledge for carrying pipe and a D-8 sitting there to pull it. I thought that when I came out that it would be interesting to watch them unload it. When I came out about four minutes later the truck was pulling out of the yard and the sledge was 300 yds away behind a cloud of dust. That company moved FAST. They paid a few fines but nothing of consequence.