HUMBOLDT — A steady stream of highway transports carried huge sections of 36-inch pipe into a storage yard at the north edge of Humboldt Wednesday. The pipe, manufactured in Canada, came up from Chanute, where it arrived on rail cars.
The joints came in varied lengths, with most 80 feet long and walls generally half an inch thick.
The pipe yard at Humboldt is one of several along the Flanagan Pipeline route that will cover 600 miles from Flanagan, Ill., to Cushing, Okla. Delivery of pipe to the yard, constructed earlier this year, is a visible precursor of construction due to hit high gear before long.
Kevin O’Connor, an Enbridge spokesman, said that work will occur simultaneously in four 150-mile “spreads,” with construction in the area containing Allen County will start in Linn County and go south of the Kansas-Oklahoma line.
“The start of construction was just authorized this week,” O’Connor said. “It will take a few days to get under way.”
Initial construction will involve clearing paths through crop fields, with arrangements already made to compensate farmers for financial loss, O’Connor said. Once right of way is free of obstacles, crews from U.S. Pipelines, the primary contractor, will remove top soil and dig trenches for the pipeline.
Meanwhile, joints of pipe will be hauled from stockpiles, such as the yard near Humboldt, and laid end-to-end so they may be welded together. Each weld will be examined and X-rayed to ensure against any leakage.
The final step will be to bury the line and return the soil to its previous condition.
O’Connor said he doubted any construction on the pipeline would occur in Allen County before late fall or early winter, other than a pump station that will be built about a mile southeast of Humboldt. Flags placed by surveyors show the pipeline’s route through the area.
The Flanagan Pipeline will parallel the Spearhead line, a 24-inch diameter pipeline that has carried crude oil through Allen County and eastern Kansas for about 60 years. The Spearhead line also originates in Flanagan and carries oil to the massive storage facility at Cushing.
The Flanagan line will transport 600,000 barrels of crude oil a day. The Spearhead line carries 175,000 barrels a day. Oil transported will come from oil sand formations in western Canadian and production in Montana and the Dakotas.
Pipeline construction draws near
