Hauling Progress: $93 million gas pipeline project on track

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story reported that a Kern River spokesperson said that potential customers who wished to tap into the natural gas pipeline the company is building in Millard County could not do so. That is not correct. According to the spokesperson, once the pipeline is operational, potential future customers could contact Kern River to inquire about service from the new line. The Chronicle Progress regrets the error.

The $93 million Delta Lateral Project underway to supply Intermountain Power's new, under-construction power plant with natural gas from Kern River Gas is buzzing along, barreling toward a scheduled completion this summer.

Workers can be found six days a week working on various portions of the 36-mile gas pipeline, which will run from outside Holden, northwest along Whiskey Creek Road, west toward Highway 50 and then alongside the highway to just east of Delta, where it will cross Highway 6 and continue north up to IPP.

Any jaunt along Highway 50 these days will see multiple construction crews moving dirt and installing the 80-foot lengths of 24-inch diameter pipe along 100-foot wide swaths of ground cut from the farms and ranches as well as parcels of public lands that dot the area.

The Chronicle Progress recently visited Kern River's construction yard, which sits on private property just outside Lynndyl, to get an update on the project's progress.

Jason Williams, Kern River's project manager, hosted a tour of the facility and showed off the various jobs being performed at the site. The main contractor hired by Kern River is WHC Energy Services, based in Broussard, Louisiana.

At a minimum, 140 workers are toiling away at any given time, with peak construction expected to more than double the workforce to 325 at some point. Workers are on 10 hours per day, with many of them driving in daily from Payson, thanks to the area's less-than-stellar housing options.

The construction yard features trailers and an existing office building for managers overseeing the project, but also piles of Class 1 and Class 2 pipe, semi trucks loaded by a vacuum boom-equipped excavator, and different areas for welding bends and elbows into the pipe.

Williams said the landowner will hardly recognize the place when Kern River is finished and once all the equipment is gone. The company plans on grading the entire site before returning it. By the fall, the pipeline route will be reclaimed as well.

Williams said currently between 14 and 17 trucks a day haul seven lengths of pipe to points along the pipeline route. In areas close to homes and businesses, the pipe used is Class 2, which is thicker than Class 1 in order to provide an extra layer of safety.

Crews began staking and clearing the pipeline route back in February and excavators have for weeks been digging trenches and removing topsoil and subsoil, trenching and laying sections of the aqua-hued pipe in the ground. The sections are laid in trenches at a minimum of three feet, with the soils stored on site for later use covering the line. Once strung together, each pipe fitting is inspected and an epoxy coating is applied to prevent corrosion. Williams said with regular inspections and routine maintenance, the pipeline's lifespan is essentially indefinite.

The biggest challenge lately for workers has been the winter weather— more snow than expected as well as a real risk of some flooding, with Whiskey Creek Road already underwater in spots, Williams said.

Possibly the biggest challenge of the whole job will be placing a section of pipe about 90 feet below the surface using horizontal drilling methods in order to cross under the railroad bed. Williams said a layer of sand was discovered at 90 feet that will make it much easier to orchestrate the placement. Luckily, he said, the company wasn't forced to dig below the nearby Sevier River.

Once everything is in place, a rigorous menu of tests will be performed to insure the pipeline's safety and reliability. For example, water will be pumped through the pipe at high pressure. Welds and other fixtures will be x-rayed and visually inspected, too. Once operational, Kern River expects to maintain a 50- to 75-foot wide right of way over most of the pipeline route. No deep-rooted trees or permanent structures are allowed in the expanse, but landowners won't be inhibited from farming and other activities so long as equipment heavier than normal farming equipment isn't used.

Kern River plans on routine testing to continue even after the pipeline is operational, including internal inspections. A control center also will monitor operations 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Asked if potential future customers could tap into the line along the new route, a Kern River spokesperson, Rebecca Houtz, said that once the pipeline is operational potential customers could contact Kern River to inquire about connecting to the new line.