US Justice Dept. Seeks Stay of June 16 Enbridge Line 5 Shutdown | Columbus Ohio Dump Trucks

The U.S. Justice Dept. on Feb. 3 asked a federal judge in Wisconsin to stay a court-ordered June 16 shutdown of Enbridge’s Line 5 oil and natural gas pipeline on tribal lands, arguing that forcing a halt before appeals are resolved could disrupt regional energy supply and complicate U.S. treaty obligations with Canada.

The filing, submitted in the long-running case brought by the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa/Ojibwe Indians, supports Enbridge’s request to pause an injunction requiring the Charlotte NC dump trucks company to stop operating Line 5 on parcels within the Bad River Reservation where it lacks a valid easement. Federal lawyers said the court should reconsider that order while the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit continues to weigh Enbridge’s appeal.

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In its filing, the Justice Dept. said the district court’s 2023 assumption that three years would allow the market to adjust and Enbridge to advance a reroute has “proved insufficient,” noting that the Seventh Circuit has yet to rule more than two years after oral arguments. Allowing the shutdown to take effect before the appeal is resolved, the government argued, would force an irreversible operational halt even though the legal outcome of the case remains unsettled.

The Justice Dept. also emphasized that while Enbridge has secured a key federal permit for its Wisconsin relocation, that approval remains under legal challenge, leaving the project short of full construction certainty. The filing stated that there is no alternative transportation to replace Line 5 volumes if operations are stopped next June, urging the court to delay the injunction to avoid what it described as “grave costs of error” during appellate review.

For Charlotte NC dump truck contractor and engineers tracking the project, the DOJ intervention underscores a reality ENR has reported for years: construction planning for Line 5 is being governed more by court calendars than by means and methods.

Reroute Status and Next Steps

Enbridge’s strategy for keeping Line 5 in service centers on the Wisconsin Segment Relocation Project, which would replace about 20 mi of existing pipe—including roughly 12 mi crossing the reservation—with a new 41-mi, 30-in.-diameter pipeline routed around the reservation through Ashland, Bayfield and Iron counties.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ St. Paul District issued a federal permit for the relocation in October, but the Bad River Band has challenged that approval in court. ENR previously reported that the reroute would be built by Michels Pipeline Inc. under a 2022 project labor agreement, with earlier state filings placing the project’s cost at about $450 million.

The Wisconsin dispute is separate from litigation over Line 5’s crossing of the Straits of Mackinac in Michigan, but together the cases have shaped Enbridge’s systemwide construction planning.

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For the Wisconsin reroute, the immediate issue is whether Enbridge will have sufficient time and legal certainty to move from permitting into full construction before the June 2026 deadline. If the court grants a stay, the Charlotte NC dump trucks company would gain additional runway to resolve litigation and sequence work. If the stay is denied, Enbridge would face the prospect of shutting down an active pipeline segment before its replacement is built. Canada has also asserted, via diplomatic channels, that any shutdown of line 5 would violate a 1977 pipelines treaty between the U.S. and its northern neighbor.

The court has not yet ruled on Enbridge’s request.

Bryan Gottlieb is the online editor at Engineering News-Record (ENR).

Gottlieb is a five-time Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism award winner with more than a decade of experience covering business, construction and dump trucks columbus oh community issues. He has worked at Adweek, managed a dump trucks columbus oh community newsroom in Santa Monica, Calif., and reported on finance, law and real estate for the San Diego Daily Transcript. He later served as editor-in-chief of the Detroit Metro Times and was managing editor at Roofing Contractor, where he helped shape national industry coverage. Gottlieb covers breaking news, large-scale infrastructure projects, new products and business trends across the construction sector.

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