Keystone Pipeline river crossing completed
By The Associated Press
Thursday, Nov 13, 2008 - 06:38:00 pm CST
YANKTON, S.D. Â The Missouri River crossing of the TransCanada Keystone Pipeline, which eventually will carry Canadian crude oil, has been completed, company officials said.
Keystone spokesman Jeff Rauh says the workers finished getting the pipe under the river at Yankton last week.
ÂThey did a great job on the drill, everything went smoothly,ÂÂ Rauh said. ÂThey were able to drill the pilot hole without any trouble. They came back and reamed out a larger hole, large enough for the pipe, and they pulled the pipe back through and completed that last week.ÂÂ
The pipe will be capped and await construction to reach it next summer, he said. In the spring, construction will begin in several areas in South Dakota and Nebraska, he said.
ÂIn the Yankton area, construction will start in Hutchinson County and work south into Yankton and Cedar County (Neb.) and progress south, almost to the Platte River. And another group will start just north of the Platte and work south from there,ÂÂ Rauh said.
ÂAnd then thereÂs another crew in South Dakota that will start working in Day County and work south from Day County into Hutchinson County by the end of the summer.ÂÂ
The pipeline will extend south-southeast through 10 Nebraska counties as it completes its 2,148-mile journey from oil fields in Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma. Its full capacity is pegged at 591,000 barrels of oil a day.
