TRACY — It may take all summer, but the crew from Northern Pipeline plans to have the second half of Tracy’s gas line replace and repair work done before the snow flies.

“The city of Tracy is part of Minnesota Energy Resources’ service area, and the natural gas facilities being replaced are owned and operated by our company,” said Matt Cullen, senior communications specialist for the WEC Group (company working with Northern Pipeline). “We expect the work on the city’s west side to be completed in late fall. 

“The work that is currently taking place is on the city’s west side,” Cullen said. “The approximate boundaries of this portion of the project are Craig Avenue to the north, South Street to the south, 2nd Street to the east, and County Road 73 to the west. The installation of new natural gas mains and service lines on the city’s east side was completed in 2017.”

“I think we’ve got 300-some services to do, and it’s about 30,000 feet of mainline,” Northern Pipeline crewman Tyler Myhre said last week.

At this time, approximately half of the distribution system upgrades on the city’s west side are complete. These upgrades have been divided into four separate work areas. By the end of July, Cullen said, they expect to have nearly all of the new natural gas mains installed in the third of these four work areas.

To continue providing safe, reliable service to their customers, Minnesota Energy Resources began upgrading its natural gas facilities in Tracy in 2017, Cullen said. This project involves the installation of new natural gas distribution mains and service lines throughout the city, which are replacing our existing facilities, he said.

“The total cost of the project is approximately $2.5 million,” Cullen said. “At this time, we have not encountered any issues that have caused the cost of the project to change. Additionally, the rain and flooding that has impacted the Tracy area recently has not prevented NPL Construction Company from moving forward with the installation of the new facilities.”

“Of course, with all the rain, it’s been really wet,” Myhre said. “There’s been standing water almost everywhere they dig. That makes it really difficult for us to do what we need to do.”

At the peak of construction, 10 workers from NPL will be working on the upgrades to the distribution system.

“It is our understanding that the workers participating in the project are from Minnesota,” Cullen said.     

Upgrading these distribution mains to updated industry standards will allow the company to continue reliable service to our current customers in the Tracy area, accommodate new customers in the future and remove a regulator station that will no longer be needed. A specialized connection will not be needed to connect the new natural gas mains to the existing transmission pipeline.

“We have 4-inch pipe up on Highway 14, and most alleyways are going to get a consistent 2-inch pipe,” Myhre said. “When we’re done, with the project, the whole town will be running on 50 pounds (of pressure), instead of 7. There will be no DRS (distribution regulation stations) in town, except for the ones south of the railroad tracks.

“Everybody’s gas meter will be regulated,” he said. “There will be a station on the highway at 14 and Center Street and then there’s another one in the alley off 6th Street and Emory.”

Much of the pipeline has been going down alleyways, Myhre said.

“It is not uncommon for natural gas facilities to be located in an alley based on the preferences of local municipalities and customers at the time those facilities were installed,” Cullen said. “The same facilities that are placed within larger roadways can also be installed in an alley.”

Myhre said that so much work is being done in the alleys because that is where the accessibility to the gas is. This makes the work more difficult because normally the alleyways are were a lot of rear easements are.

“That’s where all your cables and everything else is at,” he said. “There’s not a whole lot of room in alleyways, whereas up front, we have a lot more room to dig around.”

“The reaction we’ve received from our customers has been positive,” Cullen said. “We regularly upgrade our system to provide our customers with safe, reliable service, and the installation of the new facilities will allow us to continue this commitment to our customers in Tracy for decades to come.

“We appreciate the community’s patience during the project, and we will do all we can to complete this important safety and reliability upgrade with the least of amount of disruption to everyday life in the community,” Cullen said.

The company was in Tracy last year and replaced all the gas main lines east of Center Street.