TransCanada work goes underwater
Saturday, Oct 18, 2008 - 12:45:47 pm CDT
YANKTON, S.D. - Crews are expected to begin working this week to bury pipe for the TransCanada Keystone oil pipeline 60 feet below the bed of the Missouri River at Yankton.
The project of 4-6 weeks will involve nearly a half-mile of 30-inch pipe.
The TransCanada underground pipeline will run from Canada through the eastern Dakotas and Nebraska to refineries in Illinois and Oklahoma.
Some pipe is already in place in northeast South Dakota.
Rather than wait for the pipeline to reach the southeast part of the state, TransCanada officials decided to move ahead and lay the pipeline underneath the Missouri River at Yankton, said spokesman Jeff Rauh.
"It's out of sequence (to work at Yankton), but the crews with the expertise and equipment were available," he said.
A sensor will detect the depth and location of a drillhead as it goes from the South Dakota side under the riverbed to Nebraska, said Steve Craycroft, a member of a consulting firm working with the project.
"We begin with drilling a 12-inch pilot hole. We go at an angle, reaching 60 feet below the bottom of the river," he said. "Then we turn and go horizontal, until we go up the other side (of the river). We will bring it back up and be within several feet of the (projected) exit."
The drillhead will be replaced with a reaming head to make the hole progressively larger.
Pipe on the Nebraska side will be welded, coated, inspected and tested and then pulled through the hole to the South Dakota side in a process taking 8 to 10 hours.
Information from: Yankton Press and Dakotan, http://www.yankton.net/
A service of the Associated Press(AP)
http://www.fremonttribune.com/articles/2008/10/19/ap-state-ne/d93t1plg0.txt
