The below is provided by Columbia Gas Transmission regarding their upcoming construction project in Center Township:
Columbia Gas Transmission (Columbia) will be replacing a section of existing Line 1360 that is partially located within Center Township. The purpose of this project is to replace a section of gas line that is vulnerable to corrosion and has a history of leaks. The Project will allow Columbia to continue to provide reliable, safe, and efficient service to customers.
The Project involves replacement of a 2.78-mile segment of Line 1360 through Center Township between Monaca Borough and Hopewell Township. This segment of Line 1360 was installed in 1945 as a bare steel pipe, which is subject to corrosion. Ongoing operations and maintenance of the line since the original installation has resulted in replacing short sections of bare steel pipe with coated steel pipe. However, the majority of the segment remains uncoated; Columbia is proposing to modernize the pipeline segment for operational and maintenance purposes by replacing the existing bare steel pipe with coated steel pipe.
The existing 16-inch bare steel pipeline will be replaced with 16-inch coated steel pipeline and will be designed to Class 3 standards. The pipeline will be replaced within the existing right-of-way (ROW) using a combination of lift and lay construction, and offset lay of new pipeline and abandonment in-place of the existing pipeline. The Project will also involve replacement of various existing valve assemblies and installation of temporary above ground and below ground bypass connections at two existing Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania point of deliveries. The temporary installations will allow Columbia to mitigate outages associated with installation and sequencing of the replacement section and associated valves.
A cathodic protection (CP) system was installed in the early 1990’s to provide corrosion protection of the uncoated pipeline and is nearing the end of its design lifespan. The existing CP system consists of two linear anodes connected to two rectifiers at Center Grange Road. One rectifier/linear anode protects the north portion of the pipeline segment, while the other protects the southern portion of the pipeline segment. An inline inspection program was conducted on this segment of Line 1360 in 2018 and several external corrosion features were identified. An investigation of these corrosion features confirmed the CP system is obsolete. Columbia proposes to deactivate and remove the rectifiers at Center Grange Road. Linear anodes will be removed where encountered during construction. CP for the new coated pipeline will be provided by removing an existing buried isolation joint that isolates Line 1360 from the CP systems of two of Columbia’s existing pipelines (Line 260 and Line 65) that adjoin Line 1360. No changes to existing CP ground beds are proposed.
Construction is expected to begin in March, 2023 and continue through September, 2023. Any questions regarding this project can be directed to:
Mike Lennon
1360 Project Land Agent
mike_lennon@tcenergy.com
603-325-5869