Pipeline Designs
With the extreme topographic variation of the Canadian landscape, pipeline companies have combined innovative design and construction techniques to create highly effective systems for the transport of a variety of products. Examples of advanced design in Canadian pipelines include:
- The Alliance high vapour pressure pipeline is the newest and most technologically advanced transmission pipeline system in North America. The pipeline safely transports 38 million cubic metres of rich natural gas from its gathering system in north eastern British Columbia, across Canada and the United States to the Chicago hub.
- The Norman Wells (Enbridge) pipeline carries oil south from Norman Wells, Northwest Territories to Zama, Alberta. This northern landscape is mostly tundra and muskeg with areas of permafrost. The pipeline was designed to withstand thaw settlement, slope instability and frost heave. Design and construction involved critical assessments of the landscape. Potential scenarios were considered for all phases of construction and maintenance to assure problem free construction and operation.
- Hydro-transport in oil sands mining projects has substantially improved economies over the use of trucks or conveyors on longer hauls. Mixed oil sands are pumped through the pipeline as a slurry. As the slurry travels from the mine to the extraction plant, there is considerable separation of the bitumen from the sand. This reduces the amount of separation to be done at the extraction plant and contributes to overall project efficiency.
- Subsea pipelines have been built in challenging environments, including across the deep sub-water trench found between the British Columbia mainland and Vancouver Island. The system provides trouble free natural gas deliveries to the island.
