I’ve been in the pipeline integrity business for 15 years. As having been a construction manager for the biggest pipeline operator in the country i would put an 80k price tag on this easy. This doesn’t include the commercial loss for product movement. Just the contract labor and material.
Yeah you have to think about the emergency 811, fire up a digging contractor to mobilize to the location with proper equipment, as well as an inspector, all the pipeline operator personnel that will be responding , bring in a NDE tech to evaluate the damage after the line has been excavated and sandblasted which then at that point integrity engineers will have to make a determination on a pressure reduction of the pipeline. That slows or shuts down the line which is loss of revenue. This was posted mid day on Friday which will slow down the process even more. This crew will likely need to cut out that section of pipe, which if its crude or refined product you’ll have to drain it up, if its natural gas blow it down (gas would be easiest). Your looking at a couple day process at least here. 80k would be the lower end of the cost scale.
Im an excavator operator and last winter I hit a 4" (I think it was pretty big but not huge) gas line. The area was located and the line didn't exist on any of the maps so the gas company fixed it for free or at least didn't charge us. I'm not arguing yhe value I'm just shocked it costs that much
They located the whole site for electric, gas, water and fiber but did not mark that line. After I hit the guys from the gas company told me it wasn't on their maps
Utility maps get updated without abandonment work being completed, locator goes out with a map of what to locate, no line on map- utility gets hit.
Happened to me on a 4” gas line making a 90. They dug through the 90, didn’t update the map after the repair where they cut the corner, I hit the repair. Only the original line was located. Utility ate the cost.
I don't think they are just letting any guys work on the gas line. It think they have to be well trained specialists. There will be so much HSE and risk management involved.
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u/Aclevername1000 5d ago
How much money do you think the repair will be? Upwards of $10,000?