Hope Gas Morgantown pipeline makes progress: A visit to construction sites

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Jun. 1—dbeard @dominionpost.com MORGANTOWN — Hope Gas is making steady progress on its Morgantown Connector Project — a new 30-mile pipeline from Wadestown to Morgantown — and took The Dominion Post on a visit to several sites along the route last week.
Brittany McDaniel, Hope's director of Engineering Project Management, and Colin Mitchell, project manager for contractor Apex Pipeline Services, led the tour. Jonell Carver, Hope's chief operating office, Chris Hendrick, Hope vice president for Reliability, and Jason Barnette, with Hope's land department, also joined.
Nitro-based Apex is the contractor for the 10-mile "spread " leading into Morgantown. Charleston-based Ace Pipeline won the contracts for the two other 10-mile spreads.
Apex started cutting trees in January, McDaniel said, and expects to be nearly done with its work by the end of July into August — ahead of schedule. Ace is also ruining ahead of schedule. The line is planned to go into service Nov. 1, at the start of winter heating season when demand picks up. Additional restoration and cleanup will continue into 2026.
Hope is building the pipeline to meet increased demand for natural gas in the Morgantown area. A second line will also provide redundancy — should there ever be an issue with the existing line. But Hope also said during our Wednesday tour that one of its missions it to create West Virginia jobs.
Mitchell said Apex is employing about 150 people for its spread, while Ace has about 300 on its two sections. McDaniel said each spread also requires 20-30 Hope inspectors and support staff.
And that doesn't count service jobs — dump trucks and delivery trucks — and indirect jobs for hotels, restaurants and the various suppliers, Mitchell said.
We visited three sites in various stages of development. At one, outside Westover, two big yellow shovels sat at the bottom of a hill. A line of 16-inch pipe ran down the cleared right of way. Metal support structures keep the pipe off the ground.
At the next site, also outside Westover, the right of way runs up and down more hills and the pipe is buried. Mitchell said the line must have a minimum of 3 feet of coverage, but there's usually more. And the original ground goes back on top of that, so the line is generally about 6-7 feet below the surface.
McDaniel noted that laying pipeline is different from running it along flatland. As West Virginia companies, both contractors have an advantage. "They know how to handle this mountainous terrain."
The third site, out Fairmont Road and up Little Indian Creek Road near the Arkwright Mine, is already reclaimed. Grass is growing on the right of way running down the hill. They work with landowners, McDaniel said, to meet their needs and demand for specific types of grass, fencing, property line posts and so on.
And while the original design ran as straight as possible, she said, they've adjusted the course for the realities on the ground — including the residents along the way. The second site was moved several hundred yards to avoid a new subdivision under construction.
McDaniel estimated that the project right of way involved about 243 landowners. We've reported several times that Hope filed 31 condemnation suits — seeking eminent domain — in Monongalia County Circuit Court, and spoken with landowners unhappy with Hope's negotiations for compensation. A look at court records on Thursday showed 23 cases open and eight settled and closed.
We asked McDaniel about those holdouts. "We're working on that, " she said. Some are in the process of resolution and will be settled while some will be resolved by the court.
Along with compensation for loss of land use, some landowners raised pipeline safety concerns to The Dominion Post.
We also asked McDaniel about that. She said, "As far as I'm concerned, pipelines are the safest form of [gas ] transportation that there is." She has lines across her land, she said, and described some of the safety measures they employ, including X-raying all the pipe welds and testing the lines to 1.5 times their operating pressure.