Guardian Pipeline has hired H.C. Price Co. to build its 142-mile, 750 MMcf/d pipeline system in Illinois and Wisconsin. H.C. Price, of Dallas, was selected in a competitive bidding process and will construct the pipeline in one spread, in which work will be done by a single construction crew over the entire length of the project. Murphy Bros. Inc., of Moline, IL, was selected to build Guardian’s 22,225-hp compressor station near Joliet.

“This signing of the project’s main construction contractors keeps Guardian on track to meet its scheduled in-service date this November,” said George Hass, Guardian project manager. Land acquisition work is continuing in both Wisconsin and Illinois. Construction is expected to begin on the compressor station in March and on the pipeline June 1, with completion and operation of the pipeline expected by November.

Guardian will transport gas from interconnections with Alliance, Northern Border, Midwestern Gas Transmission and Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America at the Chicago hub near Joliet to northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin markets. The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin has approved a lateral pipeline connecting Guardian with the Wisconsin Gas system.

Currently Guardian Pipeline has firm precedent agreements with Wisconsin Gas and others to transport 662 MMcf/d (88% of design capacity) when the pipeline goes into service in November. Guardian is a partnership of CMS Energy, Wisconsin Gas parent company WICOR, and Viking Gas Transmission, a wholly owned subsidiary of Xcel Energy Inc.

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