Still Cleaning Up
I thought it was done but there were some wet spots where there were none before-and some of the repaired waterways washed out,
to Rockies Express credit they have done a good job of fixing everything so far. Some crops were destroyed to make
the repairs but I am told I will be paid for the damage.

Final Pics
Latest Pics
Welding has started, all welds are
done by machine-workers strap on a band and
welder rides around
on those bands-sounds like lightning
when they are running. BIG TIME pipe bender too.
For those wondering how they did the horizontal boring under the roads here
is the machine. They lower the whole thing down
in the trench and start cranking!

Rockies Express Pipeline Install 2008

This is a 42" diameter natural gas pipeline running from Colorado up to Maine. They install it 48" underground-so the entire hole has to be 90 inches deep.

1st step is they mowed down all my beans-that was painful to watch since they were some of the better looking beans on the farm this year-I should have planted that area last. Should have not planted it but I was skeptical if they would even get here this year. They came in with some MASSIVE mower and mowed off 140ft strip 1/2 mile across 1 field and a little of another.

2nd step is next week they will come in and remove the topsoil off to 1 side-I will get some pictures when that happens.

3rd step is digging trench and installing pipe

Final step is putting dirt back in trench and topsoil back over the top of it all.

I expect crops to not produce as well there for several years as I don't see how they can help but mix the topsoil and subsoil. Biggest concern is broken tile. If it is not repaired properly it will be REALLY hard to fix as no-one wants to dig over a natural gas pipeline so there will be a lot of hand digging. I am going to take a lot of pictures to document the entire process and that the tile lines are repaired properly.


Top 16 inches of topsoil being scraped away and piled.

All brand new cat dozers, trackhoes, and pipelayers, I also noticed all the trucks are brand new ford F250's.

As you can see in the one picture they are putting steel pipe culverts at all the crossings, then when they leave you have the option of them removing it or leaving it. When they cross roads with the dozers and trackhoes they put down old tires and then plywood on top of that and drive them across to keep from tearing up the roads.

My only complaint so far is only removing 16" of topsoil-when you may have more.

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