Consumers Energy announced the completion of a $610 million midstream project in the Saginaw, Genessee and Oakland county areas in Michigan. The project was the modernization of the Saginaw Trail Pipeline of natural gas, and it took 4 years to complete.
Dennis Dobbs, vice president of enterprise project management for Consumers Energy, celebrated the completion, and said in a statement: “We are pleased to share that the Saginaw Trail Pipeline has been successfully completed.”
“The project was a huge undertaking. We are grateful for the cooperation and patience shown by affected landowners, community leaders, residents and other entities throughout construction. We also recognize the outstanding efforts of the hundreds of company and contractor skilled trades employees who worked through the challenge of COVID-19 to bring this project to successful fruition,” he said.
The massive project saw the 78-mile Saginaw pipeline, built in the 1940’s, replaced and modernized with 90-mile of new, larger and safer pipeline.
According to the company’s report, the replacement was part of its Natural Gas Delivery Plan; this plan sets a 10-year roadmap to build safer, cleaner, more reliable and affordable natural gas network.
Recommended for you: API would go to courts if Biden bans oil & gas activity on federal lands
Environmental efforts in Saginaw and adjacent areas
“While most of the project followed the existing route through rural agricultural areas, a pipeline reroute was designed to avoid densely populated areas in Saginaw and Flint. In addition to replacing pipeline, crews also rebuilt city gate facilities where gas pressure is regulated; it was for safe delivery to homes and businesses,” the report says.
Also, the project considered several environmental efforts to restore the pipeline’s area; those efforts included the “relocating more than 100,000 turtles, frogs and snakes from the project area during construction; planting a special pollinator mix of seeds to restore more than 550 acres of wild and wetlands areas where pipeline was buried; and the partnering with local landscape companies to recycle wood waste as mulch for lawns and gardens.”
The company also underlines that, throughout the modernization project, it worked closely with officials from the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge to ensure the project was constructed in a sensitive manner, environmentally wise.
“The Saginaw Trail Pipeline helped model the way for environmental sustainability efforts for these types of large pipeline projects. I am so proud of the care and concern shown by our employees and contractors who worked to ensure that we protected the landscape of our great state as this project was constructed,” Dobbs concluded.