Work on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is set to start this fall in the Chilliwack area.
Trans Mountain officials were at Chilliwack city hall Tuesday (Sept. 21) with an update on plans for Trans Mountain expansion (TMX) construction, and project impacts on Chilliwack and surrounding areas.
City council peppered the pipeline reps with questions about community benefits, conditions, watercourse crossing safety, work camp security, and spill response.
Kate Stebbings, senior community liaison for Trans Mountain, noted the project is 30 per cent completed at this point, with more than 9,500 local and Indigenous workers getting construction underway since plans were approved by the Canada Energy Regulator.
Mechanical completion is targeted for December 2022.
“That means we have a complete pipe that’s welded together in the ground, with all the infrastructure that’s needed to support that pipe,” Stebbings said.
TMX projections say the workforce for the Upper Fraser Valley area will “peak” this summer at about 750 workers.
Trans Mountain rep Brian Cikaluk is project manager for ‘Spread 6’, which he said is about 70 kilometres in length, spanning from Bridal Falls to 232nd Street in Langley.
They’ll begin construction locally with about two months of “early works,” he said, which covers work including surveys, environmental evaluations and four-way sweeps.
Michels Canada is the contractor for the “conventional pipeline construction” that involves track hoes and opening up excavation, with some minor “trenchless” work as well.
“For the Chilliwack region we have one major river crossing which is the Vedder River,” Cikaluk said. “We do have some special project areas, like Watson elementary for example.”
Fall and winter will see construction starting locally, with some “commitments to get some pipe in the ground early,” he said.
Things will be gearing up in January 2022 with bigger pipe construction getting underway in summer and into summer/fall 2022.
The Trans Mountain expansion is a $13 billion construction project to twin the existing pipeline, and $1.7 billion of that will be spent in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley. Chilliwack tax revenue once the pipeline is in service will be $1.61 million per year, and the community benefit agreement with City of Chilliwack is for the $1.2 Vedder Greenway Pedestrian Bridge project.
The construction yard for the project is on Industrial Way near Ritchie Bros., which is where pipe is being stockpiled.
See more at transmountain.com/general-construction or for local updates transmountain.com/chilliwack
Watch the Sept. 21 discussion at city hall on video
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