Canada’s Coastal GasLink Preps for Summer

Coastal GasLink (CGL), the C$6.6 (US$5.3)bn pipeline that will deliver natural gas to the LNG Canada export project on Canada’s west coast, said March 18 it expects a “limited workforce” as spring breakup approaches.

But with the summer construction season just around the corner, it is following its approved Covid-19 management plan to gradually bring more workers to the project, which spans 670 km from Dawson Creek, in northeast BC, to Kitimat, on the province’s northern coast.

“This includes ongoing workforce testing, along with the recently announced workforce vaccination program directed by Northern Health and BC’s provincial health officer, to help protect specific populations,” CGL said in a construction update posted to its website.

The AstraZeneca vaccination program covers industrial workers residing in large workforce accommodation sites and, by extension, members of their family and the local community. 

At the end of February, 2,044 workers were spread out across the project route, which is broken into eight construction spreads; by mid-March, that number had increased to 2,682, with one new Covid-19 case identified and in quarantine.

At the end of February, CGL was showing 42.3% overall progress on the project, which includes all engineering, procurement and construction activities. Actual construction progress, it said, was at 25.8%.

CGL has said that restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic have extended its construction schedule and may lead to cost increases. TC Energy, CGL’s parent company, hasn’t officially released a new construction cost estimate, but has said it was working closely with LNG Canada to align construction schedules.