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Show I A10 Wednesday, September 26, 2007 Gas Pipeline Continued from Al The pipeline, being installed from a natural gas collection and pumping facility under construction construc-tion by Anadarko located 30 miles south of Jensen, is known as the WIC Kanda Lateral expansion project. WIC, which is a unit of El Paso Corporation, is one of several pipelines that comprise the company's Western Pipeline Group. Crews started on the line in July at Anadarko's Chapita pump station by preparing the 85-foot right-of-way for most of the 123-mile project. Most of the route follows other pipelines that have already been installed. Clearing and grading the right-of-way started the process and some 100 pieces of heavy equipment were brought in for the project. The equipment list includes 25 track hoes, 20 bulldozers, bull-dozers, 15 pipe stringing trucks and various service, water, fuel, welding and personnel trucks. "The route has to be cleared of all brush and ground cover for fire protection reasons," explained Johnson. He said that many times construction workers work-ers can grade the top surface of the route and that is sufficient. But, at other times they have to use bulldozers to level out the route. The trenching crews come in next. Currently they are almost all the way up Diamond Mountain, Moun-tain, so that in a couple of weeks they will complete the second crossing of the Green River near Browns Park. Most of the trenching trench-ing is being done with trenching machines, but there are portions of the route that have to be dug by backhoes. Once the trenching is done, crews begin stringing the pipe next to the trench. At the Jensen pipe storage yard, WIC brought in 4,620 pieces of pipe in 80-foot lengths-roughly 70 miles worth -to begin the project. This yard is looking bare as the stringing crews near the top of the mountain moun-tain to the north. The remaining pipe is stored near Rock Springs, Wyo. Pipe bending crews are next in line. They engineer the bend angles that will allow the pipe to be fit to the contour of the land when laid into the trench. Welding crews are next with a collection of big equipment that lifts and fits the two lengths of pipe for a perfect weld. A pipe alignment machine is deposited inside the line that is used to align and hold in place the pipe perfectly for the weld. The first crew of welders welds the two pipes together working both sides of the pipe. This weld is ground down before a second welding crew fills and caps the beads. The welds are then X-rayed to ensure the integrity of the welding process. A third welding weld-ing crew follows up with any fixes that that need to be made to guarantee a non-leaking pipe. J ohnson pointed out in the beginning begin-ning only about 3 percent of the welds have to be repaired with that percentage dropping to near perfect as the welders move along the project. Why Monthly payments as low as $950! No money down! No closing costs!! Open Monday - Friday 9 5 and Saturday 10 rB-Fwnlshed-ModelsWhoose-From! From Main The pipe is then lowered into the trench and is backfilled with dirt before it is hydro-tested to ensure pipe integrity. Crews then cleanup the route and start the final restoration with seeding and other site reclamation. The pipeline goes under the Green River in two places. The first was just north of Jensen below Split Mountain. The second sec-ond will be in a couple of weeks at Brown's Park. For the Jensen crossing, a 1,400-foot section of pipe was welded together and connected to a horizontal directional direc-tional drilling rig. The rig dug about 35 feet below the river before starting its ascent on the other side, pulling the length of pipe behind as it digs. "When it was all through, there were two ends of pipe sticking out of the ground on both sides of the river that were connected with the line," said Johnson. He also noted housing was secured for all 400 employees who needed a place to stay without resorting to camping along roads and rivers as some area workers are doing. Employees are able to use most of the trailer stalls in the Buckskin Hills trailer park made available by an agreement between be-tween WIC, Sheehan and Uintah County where mitigation funds were used to improve the facility north of Vernal. Johnson said that the rest of the employees are in motels, apartments and rented houses. Work will continue through December. Project management wanted to complete about 1.5 miles of pipeline a day. Currently, crews are achieving just under a mile a day and are working six days a week in 10-hour shifts to stay on schedule. Crews have cleared some 70 miles of the 123 mile route with the welders now finished with about 35 miles. The line will have a capacity to move as much as 550 million cubic feet of natural gas per day and will provide a means for more natural gas to be moved from the producing region in southern Uintah County to end-use markets in the U.S. This project will also help to alleviate the constrained conditions of not having enough export pipelines to move clean, efficient natural gas to markets that are trying to meet an ever increasing demand for the fuel. "As I said, there are more than 400 people at work, scattered scat-tered over 70 miles of pipeline working on this project," said Johnson. "It's a big process, but it's getting done." Almost 70 miles of pipe has been SUNBURST , .. r ; -j Mggw Mtate',itiii. m A lie I fttaw-r- ... .... . Affordable homes starting at only $148,950 rent when you can own for less? Family Oriented Community 3 Parks Playgrounds BBQ's Directions to Sales Center and Model Homes: Street (Hwy 40), go South on 500 West approximately 2 miles, then turn left into Sunburst Terrace. Vernal r Almost 70 miles of pipe has been completed through Browns Park. it 9 Qsj ''J IW'i Pipe sections are aligned from the inside of the pipe and held in place while the welding takes place with this piece of equipment. , moved out of the pipe storage yard in Jensen. TC.RRACEL 3-4 Bedrooms 2 Full Baths 2 Car Garage Landscaped Lot Express strung along the trenches new 4 Mi .. v i 5 Octoberfest is success despite microburst ByEuzmetiBoooe Express Writer The time-worn phrase, 'It's an ill wind that blows no good,' describes St. Paul's Oktoberfest Sept. 15. A micro-burst ripped through the area late Friday night, bending poles and tearing tent walls. By opening on Saturday Satur-day at 4:30 p.m., the weather was smiling on workers and guests, pretendingmother nature would never have done anything so violent. "Oktoberfest is a two-week festival held each year in Munich, Bavaria, Germany during late September and early October. It is one of the most famous events in the city and the world's largest fair, with some six million people attending every year. The event traditionally takes place during the 16 days up to and including the first Sunday in October," according to Wikipedia. The Vernal Episcopal Church celebrated Oktoberfest each year for only one day - but maybe the work encompasses the full 16 German days. This year it was on Sept. 15 in Vernal, the day after Uintah High School Homecoming, and approximately 250 to 300 celebrants enjoyed the nice weather, the excellent 4 : J it. It's hard to realize that anything was wrong after a late Friday night micro-burst twisted poles and shredded tents set up for Oktoberfest in back of St. Paul's Episcopal church. The brats s.tayed on the menu as planned. The front decorations were only a little mussed by the micro-burst that tore through the tents in back with some of them wrecked beyond recognition. Ouray plans celebration of Wildlife Refuge Week Hearingwolveshowl, tagging monarch butterflies, snapping pictures of soaring eagles, or just walking in the woods, thousands of Americans will be making a special connection with nature during National Wildlife Refuge Week, Oct. 7-13. The National Wildlife Refuge System, with 547 national wildlife wild-life refuges nationwide - including includ-ing the Ouray National Wildlife Refuge in Uintah County - protects pro-tects approximately 97 million acres offish and wildlife habitat. Scores of refuges are offering special programs to celebrate National Wildlife Refuge Week. The week highlights the six wildlife-dependent recreation ' uses offered on refuges: hunting, hunt-ing, fishing, wildlife photography, photogra-phy, wildlife observation, and environmental education and interpretation. The week-long celebration is also part of a year-long commemoration of the 100th birthday of pioneering pioneer-ing conservationist and writer Rachel Carson. "Sixty years ago, Rachel Carson wrote that wildlife refuges ref-uges provide a 'release from the tensions of modern life,'" said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director H. Dale Hall. "They do that and more. National wildlife food, and the music of several individuals and groups. The sun, fragrance or sounds drew people around the church to the yard in back where the remaining tent provided shade for guests that preferred the protection. "The team pulled the Oktoberfest Ok-toberfest together after the damage from the storm, and the community support was great. People drifted in throughout the afternoon and evening," said the Reverend Nina Stasser. A warm rain fell briefly about 8:30 Saturday night, just as the day closed with the drawing of winners for the crafts donated for Oktoberfest. At least one special story can be told about the good that came from the wind: Saturday morning, a lady passing by the church stopped to offer assistance. assis-tance. It turned out she attends a large Episcopal church in a city in South Carolina and was dismayed by the wind damage to this small church's endeavor. She spruced up the front decorations decora-tions and pitched in the cleanup in the back yard with the local members. It was discovered that she had also made an extra donation do-nation when she purchased her ticket for the evening. "TT r 1 "if j refuges also promise outdoor adventure to children growing up in a digital age, whose idea of nature might be watching animals on television. Refuges offer the real thing." Uintah Basin residents can experience 'the real thing' at the Ouray National Wildlife Refuge. Ref-uge. "National Wildlife Refuge Week is a great time to visit a refuge. Wildlife is very active in the fall, making this one of the best times of the year to experience experi-ence the beauty and drama of the outdoors," said Dan Alonso, manager of the Ouray National Wildlife Refuge in Randlett. The cost is free to visit Ouray NWR and the refuge is open from sunrise to sunset Monday through Sunday. Some species of birds and mammals found on the refuge are mule deer, elk, pronghorn, mallards, gadwalls, great blue herons, and white-faced white-faced ibis. Last year more than 39 million mil-lion people visited America's national wildlife refuges. There is at least one national wildlife refuge in every state. Families in most metropolitan areas can find a national wildlife refuge less than an hour's drive from their front doors. 1 M. |