Last Weld Made on Kittitas County Natural Gas Pipeline Project
Puget Sound Energy extending natural gas service to Upper County
BELLEVUE (Nov. 9, 2006) – Puget Sound Energy (PSE), the utility subsidiary of Puget Energy (NYSE:PSD), which serves more than 1 million electric customers and 700,000 natural gas customers in Washington state, is nearly finished building a 20-mile pipeline to extend the company's natural gas service from the Lower Kittitas Valley to Upper Kittitas County.
"We're thrilled to complete this multi-million-dollar pipeline project to bring natural gas service to the Upper County," said Paul Wiegand, PSE's vice president of Project Development and Contract Management. "And we're extremely grateful for the patience and cooperation of local residents, communities and agencies during the project planning this past year and construction these past four months. It was a group effort that allowed us to successfully install the pipe beneath public roads and private property to serve the area."
PSE crews yesterday afternoon completed the last weld to install the 12-inch steel pipeline's final segment beneath Thorp Cemetery Road. Over the next one to two weeks, crews will clean and pressure-test the new pipeline and finish pavement repairs and other property-restoration projects along the construction route. If wet weather or cold temperatures prevent completion of paving this fall, temporary repairs will be performed now and followed by permanent resurfacing next spring.
PSE expects to open the valve at its existing Killmore Road regulator station near Thorp before the end of the month and begin sending natural gas through the new pipeline to Cle Elum. Over the coming winter and spring, PSE will solicit consumer interest in natural gas service in Cle Elum. The utility then will design its gas-distribution network in the community, with the number of requests for gas-service hook-ups on a given street or block dictating precisely where and when the system is built out.
The new PSE pipeline not only will bring the utility's natural gas service to the greater Cle Elum area but to homes and businesses within the nearby Suncadia resort and housing development near Roslyn. Suncadia's developers already have installed a gas-distribution system within their development in anticipation of gas service coming to the Upper County.
PSE began providing natural gas service in the Lower Kittitas Valley in 1998.
Contact: Martha Monfried, 888-831-7250