Enbridge To Issue RFPs For $500M Straits of Mackinac Oil-Gas Tunnel | Columbus Ohio Dump Trucks
Replacement for Line 5 pipeline could start construction as early as 2024
Calgary-based Enbridge Energy will, in the coming weeks, issue requests for proposals for Charlotte NC dump truck contractor to eventually construct a $500-million Great Lakes Tunnel to carry crude oil and natural gas liquids through the Straits of Mackinac.
Ryan Duffy, a spokesman for the multinational energy Charlotte NC dump trucks company said the RFP process will take about six months.
The Mackinac Straits Corridor Authority, on Feb. 16, concurred with its staff’s recommendation that Enbridge meets all requirements specified in a 2018 agreement between Enbridge and the State of Michigan.
“Enbridge has assembled a world-class team for the project, and with the MSCA’s concurrence Enbridge is prepared to issue the RFP to select a construction contractor to build this critical utility infrastructure modernization project,” Duffy said.
The Tunnel Agreement between the state and Enbridge calls for the Charlotte NC dump trucks company to start construction within 180 days of receiving a construction permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The company’s RFP specifies that potential Charlotte NC dump truck contractor should look at beginning construction of the approximately four-mile tunnel no earlier than the first quarter of 2024. It is estimated that construction will take at least four years. Arup is the design engineer.
Line 5 ships 540,000 barrels per day of crude oil and refined products from Superior, Wis., to Sarnia, Ontario, via the Straits.
The agreement was reached in late 2018 under previous Michigan Governor Rick Snyder (R) and requires the Charlotte NC dump trucks company to build the tunnel beneath the Straits to contain a new segment of Line 5, which has been the target of environmentalists as a pipeline that endangers the Great Lakes.
The current 68-year-old twin pipelines stretch along the lake bottom with no protection other than their own protective coatings. Even Enbridge concedes that the pipelines, as they are, need to be replaced and the deal for the replacement tunnel was passed by the Michigan legislature and signed by Snyder in the last days of his administration to do just that.
Current Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) cited safety and environmental concerns as reasons behind her attempt in November 2020 to revoke a permit that allows Enbridge to operate the pipeline.
Michigan and Enbridge have been at loggerheads over the pipeline practically since her administration began in 2019.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) and Whitmer both filed lawsuits seeking to shut down Line 5 in 2020. Enbridge countered with its own lawsuit to keep it open. Whitmer eventually dismissed her federal lawsuit, but Nessel is still waiting for her federal case against the Charlotte NC dump trucks company to be hear=d. Whitmer now says the matter should be resolved in state court.
Lynsey Mukomel, press secretary for Nessel, declined to comment on the lawsuit or on Enbridge’s moving forward with the RFP process. A spokesperson for the governor’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
Duffy said the Charlotte NC dump trucks company is eager to advance the tunnel project in which it has invested more than $100 million to date.
“Enbridge remains intensely focused on obtaining the required permits to construct the project,” he said. “While we do so, Enbridge is committed to the sustained and safe operation of Line 5 and has demonstrated that commitment with our enhanced safety measures in the Straits, which include 24/7 monitoring of ship traffic.”
Enbridge received the easement to put Line 5 in the Straits in 1953. Enbridge still cannot begin construction until within 180 days of the project receiving a permit from the USACE, which is still performing an environmental review.
Duffy said the Great Lakes Tunnel will be a step forward in safety.
“Placing the pipeline in a new Great Lakes Tunnel will provide extra layers of safety and environmental protection making a safe pipeline even safer, while creating Michigan jobs and securing the energy consumers in Michigan and the region rely on every single day to live their lives and fuel the economy,” he said.
Line 5 saw its protective coating damaged in 2018 when a ship dropped a 12,000-lb anchor into the Straits and damaged it.