CEAC-2020-04-April

News
Enbridge Hires Companies to Design,
Build Great Lakes Tunnel
By John Flesher |AP Environmental Writer
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Enbridge Inc. said Friday, March
6, that it has hired companies to design and build a disputed
oil pipeline tunnel beneath the channel linking Lakes Huron
and Michigan, despite pending legal challenges.
The Canadian company is forging ahead with plans to begin
construction work next year on the tunnel, which would
replace twin pipes that have lain across the bottom of the
Straits of Mackinac in northern Michigan since 1953.
State Attorney General Dana Nessel is appealing a Michigan
Court of Claims ruling last October that upheld an agreement
between Enbridge and former Republican Gov. Rick
Snyder’s administration to drill the tunnel through bedrock
beneath the straits. The case is before the state Court of Appeals,
which declined to put the lower court ruling on hold
while considering the matter.
Nessel, a Democrat, also has filed a separate lawsuit seeking
to shut down Enbridge’s existing Line 5 pipes.
But the company believes its success in court thus far creates
“a path forward,” spokesman Ryan Duffy said.
“We feel like it’s time now for Enbridge and the state to
work together and keep the project moving,” he said.
Enbridge, based in Calgary, Alberta, planned March 6 to
provide a status report to the Mackinac Straits Corridor Authority
during a meeting in St. Ignace, Mich. The panel was
established by the law that approved the tunnel agreement.
Great Lakes Tunnel Constructors, a partnership between Jay
Dee Contractors Inc. of Livonia, Mich., and the U.S. affiliate
of Japan-based Obayashi Corp., will build the tunnel. Arup,
a multinational engineering company based in London, will
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| Chief Engineer