December 9 – With the removal last month of a final section of cast iron pipe installed in 1927, a 14-year, $178 million gas distribution replacement project in Portland and Westbrook came to an end.
Replacing 125 miles of cast iron and unprotected steel pipe with high-density plastic pipe and making other upgrades were among Unitil Corp.’s “largest and most aggressive capital improvement initiatives,” according to the natural gas company that owns and maintains the system . Some pipes were more than 100 years old.
The work also includes upgrades to 8,862 service lines and 16,945 meters. In total, the project serves approximately 9,000 “endpoints,” or measured residential and commercial customers, more than a quarter of the 33,000 customers in Maine.
Fewer gas leaks and a decrease in methane emissions are among the benefits of the project. In addition, the system has more control points where flow and pressure are regulated; improved control stations; and overall it provides a more reliable gas supply and better gas quality, the company said.
With the new pipelines, Maine now has “one of the tightest systems,” Unitil spokesman Alec O’Meara said.
The project goes back some time, with the first submission to the state Public Utilities Commission in March 2008. After much discussion with the utility, the Office of the Public Advocate and others, the PUC acknowledged in July 2010 that replacing aging pipes was the best. way to address leaks and other safety concerns, said Carol MacLennan, senior staff attorney at the agency.
According to the PUC, the gas lines had been in the ground for 46 to 110 years. Northern Utilities, which was acquired by Unitil in 2008, suffered at least 89 downed cast-iron power lines between 1998 and 2002, regulators said.
During those four years, between nine and 27 pipeline ruptures occurred annually.
In January 2004, a corroded and cracked cast iron pipe exploded in Lewiston, injuring five people and damaging property. The PUC approved a plan to replace cast iron and bare steel in Lewiston and Auburn over four years. It then directed Northern to come up with a proposal to do the same in Portland and Westbrook.
Public safety was a major reason Public Advocate William Harwood said he supported the project. “It raised the question of whether they continued to use cast iron pipes if they met the requirement of safe, reasonable and adequate service,” he said.
Twenty states have eliminated cast-iron or wrought-iron natural gas distribution lines, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. The pipelines are among the oldest in the U.S. and many were installed more than 60 years ago, the agency said. Degrading ferrous alloys and the age of the pipelines have increased the risk of continued use, the DOT said.
The Department of Transportation in October announced $196 million in grants, funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to repair and replace aging natural gas pipelines. The funding round will support 60 natural gas pipeline modernization projects in 20 states, the agency said.
Harwood and environmentalists supported state legislation this year aimed at curbing natural gas expansion by changing the way it is financed. This was not a problem with the Unitil project, which does not expand but replaces the pipeline network.
“We agree with the program,” Harwood said.
The project’s taxpayer-funded costs have been phased in over most of the 14-year project to avoid an “interest rate shock,” MacLennan said. The utility was required to submit an annual plan that was used to compare to the following year’s plan, she said.
Harwood said that Unitil submitted the cost data each year separately from the PUC’s rate-setting procedures and that it was “put on a separate tracking system” so that regulators and the Public Advocate could “see exactly what they were spending and ensure that they were getting back exactly what they were getting.” was allowed and no more.”
The costs of the project have skyrocketed over the years. Northern Utilities said in March 2008 that it expected replacing all the cast iron in Portland and Westbrook would cost between $21 million and $52 million, with the range likely to be between $40 million and $52 million.
O’Meara said the scope of the project has expanded since 2011. In 2014 it was expanded with the replacement of certain exposed steel pipes and safety valves. The pipe replacement project was required by the PUC in 2008 before Unitil acquired Northern, he said.
Additionally, “prices change over time in unforeseen ways, especially on long-term construction projects,” O’Meara said. “That’s exactly what happened here.”
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