‘Previously unidentified’ landfill woes boost Trans Mountain pipeline costs

globalnews.ca:

A Trans Mountain company report reveals new details about what triggered massive cost overruns within its pipeline expansion project, including problems it says were caused by an abandoned landfill site.

Submitted to the Canadian Energy Regulator, the 47-page report states that construction crews encountered an “extreme risk” in the form of “a previously unidentified landfill” located along the pipeline route between Burnaby and Coquitlam, B.C.

Trans Mountain, a federal Crown corporation, declined to discuss the issue but told its regulator that this risk triggered unexpected, lengthy delays and extra costs.

Global News has confirmed that pipeline diggers hit buried car parts, a washing machine and other objects in one old Coquitlam city landfill located on the pipeline route, though it’s unclear if it is the same place described by Trans Mountain.

The company would not confirm the location nor how much it cost to fix the problem.

The 47-page report’s reference to landfill woes was one example of unforeseen problems Trans Mountain says its contractor crews faced on a wider scale along the project’s path.

Its price tag has surged from a $5.3-billion estimate in 2017 to $30.9 billion this year.

According to the document, Trans Mountain officials used incomplete information to develop its pipeline route and initial cost estimates. Also, when crews started the building, they discovered discrepancies between the information they were given and the actual conditions at work sites, which the company calls “ground truthing.”

“Assumptions in the baseline (cost) estimate concerning items such as construction quantities, terrains, alignments, site conditions and geotechnical data were based on available desktop data only,” the