7:12 AM
Art Hovey, Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 12:00 am
SEWARD, Neb. -- May was a succession of dry days and a pipeline builder"s dream of ideal conditions.
Since then, an unusually wet June has turned the construction area for the Keystone petroleum pipeline project west of Seward into a mud pit.
Suddenly, "weather permitting" has become the operative phrase for Keystone spokesman Jeff Rauh in describing efforts to bore under U.S. 34 and install that portion of the 30-inch pipe.
Work on the 130-mile section from the Platte River to the Kansas border, which began in late May, has reached the point where the welders from a crew of about 350 are connecting 80-foot sections in the David City-Schuyler area.
"But my expectation is that we are still a week away from the lower-in activity, weather permitting," Rauh said. "And it may be longer if the wet weather continues."
"Lower-in" is the stage when the pipe is laid along the bottom of a trench deep enough to accommodate 4 feet of soil cover.
On Monday, workers west of Seward were more focused on trying to pump away standing water, including another half-inch of rain that fell earlier in the morning.
The 2009 construction season is showtime in Nebraska for a project that will cost $5.2 billion overall and connect the oil sands of Alberta, Canada, with Illinois refineries.
Keystone builders pulled the pipe under the Missouri River in late 2008. By the end of 2009, they expect two crews to finish the job in Nebraska, from Cedar County southward to Steele City, and to have oil flowing from there through Kansas and Missouri to the end point at Patoka, Ill.
Even as that ambitious agenda goes forward, the TransCanada Corp. and its business partners are moving ahead with plans for a second and slightly larger pipe from the same origination point, passing through the area west of York and continuing to Gulf Coast refineries.
Construction on the second pipe, known as Keystone XL, is likely to start in 2011 or 2012, Rauh said.
Doing what needs to be done to get permits for the second project is a bit easier now than the installation job on the first one, at least west of Lincoln.
The Lincoln Airport recorded another .82 of an inch of rain Monday morning, and a volunteer observer reported .52 of an inch at Seward.
Since the latest precipitation was fairly localized, Keystone crews were able to go forward with a more normal shift in Butler County and points north Monday.
Nonetheless, "It"s certainly been a wet period in this portion of the country," Rauh said.