Pipeline planners poised to file
The planners of the $750 million Constitution Pipeline project say they expect to submit an application for a federal license to build the natural gas transmission system the week of June 10. While the projected license filing date is well behind the original timetable of sending it to federal regulators last January, a spokesman for Williams Partners, a major investor in the project, said the target for putting the pipeline in service remains what it was originally: March 2015.
According to the pipeline planners, construction of the 120-mile pipeline, if it is licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, will begin after July 1, 2014. Last year, the company had projected construction would commence in April 2014. Even with a shorter time frame to get the pipeline in the ground, Stockton said it remains feasible to complete the natural gas transmission system by March 2015 with what is now a "condensed construction schedule."
He pointed out that the project no longer includes building a new compressor station in Schoharie County, where the proposed new pipeline would connect with two existing pipelines. He said it's possible to condense the amount of time needed to build the pipeline by hiring more crews. Those crews, known in the construction industry as "spreads," would be working simultaneously at different sites along the pathway, rather than running the pipe, one section at a time, from south to north, Stockton said.
A grassroots group opposed to the licensing of the Constitution Pipeline said it was highly skeptical of the latest information coming from the project planners. "You can't start six months late and finish six months early," said Anne Marie Garti of East Meredith, an organizer for Stop the Pipeline.
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