Kern River Pipeline work closes freeway lanes

Kern River Pipeline company has been working on this area quite a long time.  See my earlier post, Kern River Pipeline Problems when part of the frontage road was damaged and closed last November.  This is a major natural gas pipeline that runs very near homes in my community.  Too near, if you ask me.

All I know is that Kern River had approval to increase the capacity of its pipeline.  I assume this ongoing construction work may be related to that.  But there seems to be no way of getting more details about what is going on.  Every day a highway patrolman is parked at the site with emergency lights on to warn drivers to slow down on the busy frontage road.  Sometimes a lane is closed.  I wonder what the work is they are doing, what the risks are, why it's taking so long, and who is paying for highway patrol presence. 

Today, part of the freeway was undermined and lanes again had to be closed.

KSL.com

The Utah Department of Transportation originally closed two lanes between the US-89 off-ramp and the I-215 on-ramp. Crews drilling under the interstate for a natural gas pipeline caused holes in the roadway's supporting base. So Sunday night UDOT closed the lanes to fix the problem. Crews also closed parts of Beck Street for the same reason. They have opened one lane on northbound I-15, but will keep one closed until at least 3 p.m.
 UPDATE:
An updated news story tells us that apparently tunneling under the freeway has resulted in collapses.  What kind of operation is this?   Does this inspire confidence?  So it does sound like they are replacing existing pipe with highter capacity pipe.  But it seems we should be paying attention to the poor quality of the work being performed here.  A natural gas pipeline that crosses a fault line in six places close to populations should be of great concern to our local governments.  I see little response to this comedy of errors from my community or others.  The highway department is going to suspend the permit to drill, and that's something.

By the way, note to the reporter: North Salt Lake is not Ogden, not even close -- but Salt Lakers are always pretty vague on anything north of the county line.  Come on KSL --- Ogden?

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