Bullet-proof truss moved in over pipeline

Benjamin Woodard | NN

A crane operator lowered an 85-foot-long steel truss onto the exposed section of pipeline running across Whatcom Creek on Tuesday, May 25.

            For the last three weeks, two sections of trails on either side of the creek have been cordoned off in Whatcom Falls Park as crews drilled pilings into the creek bed to support the truss. The lowering of the structure marks the end of construction, tagged at about $1.3 million at the expense of the Olympic Pipe Line Company.

            The nearly 150-foot tall crane was operated by an experienced crewmember that placed the truss within a 1-inch window, said Pamela Brady, an Olympic Pipe Line Company employee who works with landowners about land-use concerns.

            “I asked the crane operator if it felt like she was doing surgery rather than operating a crane,” Brady said, “and she said, ‘absolutely, yes. It was very precise.’”

            The pipeline, which moves 290,000 barrels of fuel per day, has a long and checkered history with Whatcom Creek. In 1999, the pipeline leaked thousand of gallons of fuel into the creek. The fuel was inadvertently ignited, sending a fireball 1.5 miles downstream that killed three. Two boys burned to death, and a man fishing in the creek was overcome with fumes and drowned. 

Pipeline shut down

            Olympic Pipe Line Company shut down the pipeline in two places — a procedure called a “double block” — Tuesday at noon, Brady said. The pipeline was turned back on after crewmembers secured the main section of the truss. The whole process of lifting the truss and setting it over the pipeline took about an hour. 

            Two more small sections will be installed within the next few days, and trails will be opened soon after, Brady said.            

Blast prompts efforts

            Since the pipeline explosion, the Olympic Pipe Line Company has worked with the City of Bellingham to prevent another rupture, Brady said.

            The company signed an agreement with the city that required the company to bore under the creek to bury the pipeline, City of Bellingham Environmental Planner Kim Weil said. But after the company surveyed the bedrock underneath the creek, the bedrock proved too thick, and the necessary drill would have upset the watershed, Weil said, so the city agreed to let the company cover the exposed portion of the pipeline with a truss.

            David Lykken, director of pipeline safety for the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, keeps tabs on private pipeline companies throughout Washington state to ensure they follow federal regulations. He said a handful of pipelines in western Washington go aboveground because of steep terrain.

            “I am not aware of an instances where trees have fallen on exposed pipeline,” Lykken said.

            He said the commission does not force private companies to cover exposed pipeline.

Park receives no complaints

            Before Olympic Pipe Line Company began constructing the steel truss, the company requested to remove a few trees near the exposed portion, Weil said. 

            An arborist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife disagreed with removing any old growth forest near the creek, she said, so the city agreed to a truss.

            Since the trails closed in Whatcom Falls Park, no one has complained.

            “It was kind of surprising because we usually can’t close down one trail for an hour without people complaining,” said Clayton Snyder, a Bellingham Parks and Recreation Department employee who overlooks the trails in Whatcom Falls Park. “Maybe it’s because they realize it’s for the safety of the pipeline — people are pretty pipeline-explosion jittery around here.”

            During the construction, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife tested the water to ensure that construction materials did not harm fish. Jeff Kamps, habitat biologist with the department, said the creek’s water quality did not change. 

            “From my general observations, they didn’t have that span of pipeline in very good condition,” Snyder said, who is also a former pipeline engineer. “It reminded me of oil fields with no governmental control, but it’s been a pretty fun project for me, and [Olympic] addressed all our concerns.”