Contra Costa County has permitted night work at the intersection of Jones Rd. and Treat Blvd. in Walnut Creek between Feb.6 and Feb.14 from 9 p.m. through 5 a.m.
The purpose of this night work is for Kinder Morgan to perform pipeline maintenance while minimizing the impacts to daytime vehicle traffic.
The pipeline maintenance work will consist of pavement saw cutting and excavation as well as staging of construction equipment.
Some dust and noise is expected and will require temporary lane closures during the hours of construction.
There will be traffic control through the work area and motorists should expect some delays.
BOOM!!!
Aren’t they the ones that caused an explosion near downtown Walnut Creek a few years back. Cut into a pipeline going to San Jose Airport.
They were pushing the contractor and he wouldn’t go faster, saying that he had to be careful around the flammable line. They booted that contractor off the job and got someone else who did go faster, with the explosion being the result. Cost K-M about $15 mil as I recall.
My understanding is that they (KM) hit the pipeline because the records of pipe locations in that area were off by about 15′. Had they been accurate no damage would have been done.
Anyone know what the pipeline contains or who it serves ?
It’s a jet fuel pipeline from the refineries in Martinez that feeds the San Jose airport.
When they were installing the pipeline on the Iron Horse trail right of way they ran into a large oak tree a little south of Las Lomas high school in Walnut Creek. They constructed a detour around the tree, which was a common occurrence, but did not document the exact location. Later the tree was cut down and its stump was covered up by dirt.
In 2004 the East Bay Municipal Utility District was installing a new 72 inch water main parallel to the Kinder Morgan pipe. As part of this project the Kinder Morgan pipe was marked in the field with flags but they did not mark the offset as its exact location was not known. Instead, there was a note on the engineering diagrams that there was an offset in the area and that EBMUD’s contractors needed to dig by hand to determine the exact location of the fuel pipeline.
I’m not sure if it’s relevant to the story but during the project EBMUD canceled the contract with the trench digging company and had another working on the job. Some have claimed the first contractor was moving too slowly while being careful to avoid the fuel pipeline. As Kinder Morgan had the deep pockets compared to trench digging companies I don’t think the lawyers spent a lot of time investigating why EBMUD changed contractors. Instead, they went after Kinder Morgan for failing to provide accurate field marks that documented the offset.
A backhoe operator opening the trench for the water pipe hit the jet fuel pipe and cut it open. The fuel flowed down the trench and into the most recently laid section of pipe. Unfortunately, there were welders at work deep inside the pipe connecting the newest section of pipe to the rest of the water pipeline. The jet fuel ignited as it flowed around the welders. Five people were killed and another four were seriously injured.
The good news for next week’s work is that it should not disrupt the commute as they will be working in the eastbound lanes of Treat.
Correction – I ran across a document that says the pipeline that was struck carries premium gasoline from Kinder Morgan’s Concord plant to another plant in San Jose. They have several pipelines, one of which is jet fuel. That it was gasoline clears up a little mystery as people also reported an explosion. Jet fuel generally does not explode and so I had always wondered about the accounts of an explosion.
Here’s the full report: ftp://ftp2.cpuc.ca.gov/PG&E20150130ResponseToA1312012Ruling/2013/05/SB_GT&S_0700740.pdf