(Calgary) The company that owns Trans Mountain says it remains optimistic about a pipeline restart by the end of the week.
Trans Mountain says 350 people are working around the clock to restart the pipeline, which has been closed as a precaution since Nov. 14 due to flooding in British Columbia.
The company said that over the weekend, crews hiked or were airlifted to areas where there is still no road access to inspect the pipeline.
Trans Mountain says there is no indication of a pipeline spill. As a precaution, the company has deployed spill response equipment at checkpoints in river areas near or downstream from where it works.
The Trans Mountain pipeline is a critical part of the energy infrastructure of British Columbia and Washington State. This is the longest period of closure of the pipeline in almost 70 years of existence.
Enbridge also temporarily shut down a segment of one of the two pipelines that make up its Westcoast pipeline last week due to heavy flooding in British Columbia.
Enbridge says it was able to maintain natural gas service despite the event and has since increased network capacity. It says the Westcoast pipeline now transports 1.63 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, more than 100% of the total contract volume transported around this time last year.
The Canadian Pacific Railway Company announced Monday that the tracks will be in operation again as of noon Tuesday between Kamloops, British Columbia, and Vancouver. CP says crews have worked tirelessly since Nov. 14 to repair 30 locations in the Thompson and Cascade subdivisions that were damaged by flooding.