by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
A new natural-gas line is now being extended 50 feet under the Mississippi River in Sartell.
The project, undertaken by Xcel Energy, has been close to two months in progress. From a point east of the river by the city’s east water plant on Benton Drive, workers about eight weeks ago began precise directional drilling into the granite bedrock below the river. The drilled “tunnel,” which houses the gas line, is about eight-inches wide below the river and four- to six-inches wide where it branches off for distribution, said Mark Osendorf, Xcel community-relations manager, in a Jan. 17 interview with the Sartell-St. Stephen Newsleader.
The line will replace a much older one that had been connected to the “old bridge” that crosses the river near the River Boat Depot area. A new line is needed, Osendorf said, to help supply a growing Sartell with enough natural gas, including the area that will soon burgeon with new growth at and near the new Sartell High School.
The new steel pipeline is 5,500-feet long. It exits the west side of the river about one block north of the DeZURIK plant.
Once the hole was drilled under the river, the pipeline was pulled from the west side to the east side using highly precise equipment. The drilling process itself was done from east to west.
The new line is located 2,500 feet north of the old line connected to the old bridge.
