Six years ago, they scratched dirt on TMX. Finally, FINALLY, it is nearing completion, and expected to enter service May 1.
The original pipeline was built over 65 years ago with equipment that largely didn’t even have hydraulics, and absolutely did not have computers, GPS, laser measurement or anything else like that. And they did it in 16 months.
Also:
Brian Zinchuk on Evan Bray Show: Multilateral wells, oil royalties, TMX pipeline, lithium, helium and more
Over/Under on an emergency stay from some random Native or Watermelon group that gets a positive response from the judge because “climate crisis”
A brief tutorial on horizontal drilling.
https://youtu.be/s_hFTR6qyEo?t=95
16 months 65 yrs ago vs 6 years now.
allow me to make a prediction.
at this rate a pipeline built in say 2060 will take to the end of the century and promptly gets shut down when the ghost of trudeau past makes an appearance
All capital projects take much longer than they used to, for reasons that don’t have much to do with actually building the project. Yes, we do more engineering that we used to, and that does reduce the risk of failures. Yes, we do it more safely that we used to, and that does take some extra effort and time. But the primary reason projects take so ridiculously long now is that there are fewer people who know how to actually do, and many more people involved whose goal is to impede, even if they don’t think that is what they are doing. TMX was built attempting to have NO environmental impact. Impossible. Could we reduce it? Yes. Did the original TM have a hugely detrimental impact on the environmental through which it was built? No, but it depended if you looked 3 months after construction or 5 years later. Today, the consultation requirements to get buy-in from anyone and everyone is also causing delays, as does the tendency of those who aren’t happy to resort to the courts to stall the system – they seek perfection when perfect cannot be.
Until we, as a nation, sort this stuff out, we will never pull out of the productivity decline and poverty trap we find ourselves in.
Amen, brother.
Very good observations, T. To which I would only add that the western world has largely stopped building large infrastructure projects of any kind. As a consequences, project management of large, complex projects has tended to become a skill of the past. The best project management companies, to no surprise, are generally found in those countries still building these types of projects. South Korea comes to mind as an example.
In Canada, I would argue that the last examples of large projects would be the assorted oil sands upgraders built over the previous three decades. But with Canada becoming increasingly unattractive to large capital investment, these are becoming a thing of the past as well.
We used to do large project management well, such as Ontario’s nuclear power program from the 1960s to the late 1980s, but that was killed off by the Ray government.
It would seem to be so:
“To complete the Expansion Project, there are several remaining steps including obtaining outstanding approvals from the Canada Energy Regulator (CER). With the appropriate approvals and completion of remaining construction activity, Trans Mountain will commence transporting crude oil on the expanded system.”
https://www.transmountain.com/news/2024/trans-mountain-successfully-completes-pipe-pullback-for-mountain-3-hdd-and-provides-operational-update
could it also be that when the original Trans_Mountain pipeline was built, that the vast majority of Canadians
(including those who were part of the regulatory process)understood that the economy of Canada was in large measure based on resource extraction? And that a project of this magnitude would benefit ALL Canadians, not unlike the St. Lawrence Seaway, Trans-Canada Pipeline and even the Trans Canada Highway? those days are gone…even though we are still very much a resource extraction based economy it seems like very few people are aware of that, and have bought into the whole climate change/DEI/ sustainability lunacy.
I fear that we will never sort this stuff out, as long as we continue to fill out parliamentary seats and judges benches with cowards.
It would be interesting to see a forensic breakdown of all the costs of this project. My hunch would be that there was a significant fraction from greasing palms of special interests opposed to it or those genetically predisposed to shaking down anything built on Crown land they considered theirs.
I’ve had a few years of project management experience and agree with those good points above.
John – Don’t discount the impact of the war in Ukraine which is of course responsible for inflation which has caused the price of brown paper bags to skyrocket! And the climate changed. Done like only the government could. 5 or 6 times Kinder Morgan’s projected cost.
And let us not forget that – during and after the serious rainstorm of November, 2021 – it was the crews of the much-maligned pipeline construction company who went into action and ensured beleaguered communities received food and water. To my knowledge, this serious help was never acknowledged by the provincial government.
I know someone who was heavily involved in those rescues.