Pipeline Triad Relocation

When the Missouri Department of Transportation made the decision to replace a pair of bridges (built in 1933 and 1957) over the Missouri River, a pipeline company had to remove several significant pipelines that were suspended from one of them.

For multiple reasons, our client Magellan Midstream Partners, ultimately opted to pursue re-routing of the pipelines under the Missouri River. Our team provided surveying, engineering, and design for the pipeline relocations, permitting packages, horizontal directional drilling observation and supported the client through all the necessary processes for secure permissions from regulatory authorities.

This project demonstrated that major hurdles of all kinds can be overcome by good engineering, an ability to be flexible, and most importantly, a good faith effort by all parties involved to work together. The project’s technical challenges were daunting, but from a risk assessment perspective, some of the greatest threats to the project were posed by the many permits and approvals upon which the undertaking hinged. We live in an era when layers of intense governmental oversight and scrutiny make large pipeline infrastructure projects more and more difficult to execute. We were able to sit down and find common ground and a path forward, in a timely manner, with the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the Fairfax Drainage District of Kansas, the Riverside-Quindaro Bend Levee District of Missouri, and Union Pacific Railroad.