Williams Breaks Ground on Atlantic Sunrise Pipe Project
Williams Partners, which operates the 10.9bn ft3/day Transco natural gas pipeline that connects south Texas and New York City, has broken ground on the greenfield portion of its $3bn Atlantic Sunrise Project.
Atlantic Sunrise – a combination of 293-km (183 miles) of new pipeline, 70,000 horsepower of new compression capacity, and loops on an existing Transco lateral in Pennsylvania – is designed to deliver enough gas from the Marcellus Shale to heat 7mn homes in the Mid-Atlantic and southeastern US. It will increase Transco’s total system capacity to a massive 12.6bn ft3/day (130.3bn m3/yr).
The project also includes facilities on the Transco mainline to facilitate the bi-directional flow of natural gas. The Transco mainline, which includes 10,200 miles of pipeline, was originally developed to deliver gas from Texas to markets along the Eastern Seaboard, as far north as New England.
Transco pipeline (Map credit: Williams Partners)
Work began on the new compression facilities last week, while new pipeline installation is expected to begin next week on a total of eight construction spreads, six of which will be working concurrently. Construction is expected to last 10 months, weather permitting, and the new facilities should be in service by the middle of next year.
During peak construction, the project is expected to directly employ 2,300 workers in 10 Pennsylvania counties, with up to 6,000 indirect jobs created in related industries. It will generate an estimated $1.6bn in economic activity, according to researchers at Pennsylvania State University.
Dale Lunan