The Enbridge pipeline designed to transport more than 4 million barrels of crude oil a week from Flanagan, Ill., to Cushing, Okla., will be completed sometime next summer. STEPHAN gave a tutorial on the pipeline’s construction.
Zach Stephan, an Enbridge engineer, said construction was on schedule and even rocky terrain in eastern Kansas hadn’t slowed U.S. Pipeline crews. U.S. Pipeline is the project’s contractor, with Enbridge engineers overseeing the work.
The pipeline is 36 inches in diameter and every effort is being made to lay it in a safe manner conducive to local concerns, said A. J. Wilson, a former Kansas legislator and now a public relations specialist with Enbridge.
“It’s a team effort,” said Wilson, with cities, counties, property owners and agencies, such as Kansas Wildlife and Parks, having been involved in planning and construction since day one. “We’ve had a great reception (in southeast Kansas).”
The pipeline will cover 600 miles and have seven pump stations, plus innumerable valves, along the way. One pump station is being constructed on 40 acres about two miles southeast of Humboldt, and is “quite an engineering feat,” Stephan said.
The station will ensure that oil — collected from projects in Canada and North Dakota — flows through the line at the rate of 600,000 barrels a day, or a touch over 25 million gallons. A barrel of oil contains 42 gallons.
The pipeline closely follows the route of the 62-year-old, 24-inch Spearhead pipeline that can carry about 200,000 barrels a day.
Responding to a question, Stephan said there was no truth in a rumor that once the Flanagan line was operational the Spearhead line would be taken out of service. Fact is, he said, the older pipeline recently was inspected by a high-tech device — commonly called a pig — that ran from one end to the other to locate corrosion and other potential weaknesses. Deficiencies are being repaired to keep Spearhead a viable transporter.
To ensure the new pipeline’s reliability, close inspections are made of welded joints.
Once the pipeline is completed, it will be hydro-tested stem to stern.
Stephan said the pressure testing would be done at 2,220 pounds per square inch, or half again the maximum pressure for which the pipe is engineered.
Initially, topsoil is graded aside ahead of the line’s trench being dug, including removal of rock that has been found with regularity in Allen and nearby counties. Pipe is carried from yards, such as one just north of Humboldt, and bent to conform to where it will be laid before being welded.
The pipeline’s bed in the trench also has exacting standards. A layer of soil is placed in the bottom of the trench to cushion the steel from underlying rock and dirt then is placed all around the pipe. Some rock removed from the trench is returned, but not all.
“We have had to haul off some,” Stephan said.
Once the trench is leveled off, topsoil is returned to the original contour of the land. At the least, the pipeline’s top edge will be four feet underground.
Stephan said Enbridge would make every effort to ensure the pipeline’s corridor looked exactly as it did before first dirt was disturbed, including replacing fences. Same is true for roads, with trenches often cut through rock roads and boring down under those hard-surfaced.
A spectacular event in the construction will occur when the line is taken under the Neosho River near the U.S. 169 bridge north of Chanute.
A 1,500-foot tunnel will be bored 40 feet under the river’s bed, and during that portion of the project onlookers will be accommodated, but arrangements must be made ahead of time with Enbridge.
Pipeline on schedule
