Source: Star Beacon
Originally Posted on March 25th, 2019 by BRIAN HAYTCHER
NORTH KINGSVILLE — Work has begun on the Risberg Pipeline as crews have started clearing land in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
The $86 million natural gas pipeline expansion project includes a 28-mile expansion of a pipeline that now ends in Meadville, Pennsylvania. New, 12-inch pipe will stretch in a northwestern direction through Pennsylvania before entering Ohio in Conneaut near Baldwin Road. Once in Ohio, the pipe will extend another 12 miles through stretches of Conneaut and Kingsville Township before reaching its end in North Kingsville near the CSX Railway crossing on Route 193.
“The project in earnest is still in Pennsylvania,” Dennis Holbrook, spokesperson for RH energytrans, said.
There also is some work happening in Ohio at the meter station in North Kingsville, where the pipeline will end. The project currently employs more than 170 people, and Holbrook expects that number to rise above 200 before the project finishes.
RH energytrans has set up a camp in Kingsville, just north of Interstate 90, he said. The camp will act as a staging area, and also has temporary office facilities and portable restrooms.
“The biggest challenge right now is getting cooperation from the weather,” Holbrook said.
If the weather cooperates, he said, the project should be completed sometime in the early summer.
Local municipalities and villages have been preparing for the start of construction for some time.
“We’ve been talking to (RH energytrans) for a long time,” Conneaut City Council President Debbie Newcomb said. “They’ve seemed very willing to work with us.”
In North Kingsville, the village street superintendent will be the point of contact with the construction teams.
“We’re very happy to see a large infrastructure project like (the pipeline),” North Kingsville Mayor Tim Zee said. “They basically have half the village to go through.”
RH energytrans has touted the pipeline’s effect on the local economy, including using western Pennsylvania trucking companies, having construction teams staying in local hotels and eating at local businesses, seeing an increase in business for local vendors and hiring local contractors for the project.
In addition, Holbrook said, many of the tourist cottages along the shore of Lake Erie were seeing an increase is business because of workers coming in from out of town.
“It’s a long time coming,” Newcomb said. “We’ve been looking forward to this.”
You may view the original article HERE