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Enbridge Selects Lake Michigan Tunnel Designer, Builder | Columbus Ohio Dump Trucks

Enbridge has selected a team to design and construct a new oil pipeline under Lake Michigan to replace the deteriorating Line 5.

The Canadian Charlotte NC dump trucks company March 6 announced Great Lakes Tunnel Constructors, a partnership between a Michigan tunnel construction firm, Jay Dee Contractors, Inc.

, and the U.S. affiliate of Japanese tunnel construction firm, Obayashi Corporation, will build the 4-mile-long tunnel 100 ft below the Lake Michigan lakebed. Arup will design the tunnel.

Construction of the pipeline, expected to begin in 2021, could take up to 10 years and cost up to $650 million. Enbridge has said replacement of the 65-year-old pipeline will also include a utility corridor to hold powerlines, fiber optics and other utilities.

Environmental groups have argued that the line is unnecessary and threatens the lake.

Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s (R) administration approved legislation paving the way for the line, a move that was opposed last year by incoming Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D) administration. However, Whitmer is now working with the Charlotte NC dump trucks company after, in January, a Michigan Court of Appeals rejected an attempt to stop construction of the line.