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Project Overview

• HT Engineering, engaged by a Midwest pipeline operator, successfully navigated challenging design reviews with a residential developer, fostering open communication and trust. The positive rapport led to improved safety compliance, increased receptiveness in the design review process, and a foundation of mutual respect between all parties involved.

Project Impact 

• Genuine interactions and transparency earned the operator respect from local firms and state departments.
• Design submitters are more willing to abide by restrictions, fostering mutual respect and trust.

Challenges and Solutions

• Safety Compliance: Round-table meeting ensured a united opinion for discussions with the developer, addressing safety comprehensively.
• Increase Efficiency: The positive rapport built between the engineering consultant, pipeline operator, and the developer led to increased receptiveness to feedback in the design review process.

For new construction projects around pipeline easements, the designers must work with the operator to ensure the plans will not negatively impact the existing assets and comply with existing rights documents. Project plans are submitted to operators directly or through the state’s one-call system. Request volumes can range significantly each week depending on the size of the operator and their location. In each instance, the operator must sort through these requests and determine which projects will pose a risk to their assets, at which point they must contact the ticket submitter and begin the process of reviewing their construction plans and evaluating the work they have planned. These projects range from garden sheds and fences to entire subdivisions, and oftentimes, it can be difficult to assess the extent to which a project or the construction required to complete the project can affect a pipeline. Managing such a large number of tickets can be cumbersome which can result in a contractor choosing to ignore the design review process altogether and build their project without the pipeline operator’s permission.

When HT Engineering (HTE) was approached by a Midwest-based pipeline operator to supply them with an engineering consultant for their design review program they inherited a large number of projects that had design reviews that were already in progress. One of these projects was a housing subdivision submitted by a residential developer who were well known by the client to be difficult to work with and very stubborn when receiving feedback on designs.

When HTE  joined the design review process the operator had received final plans from this developer just a couple weeks before, and one of the first items on the docket was to review these new plans and open discussions with the developer. HT worked with the operator’s field personnel to ensure that they could give a well-formulated response to this developer. The engineering consultant met with the operator’s cathodic protection department to ensure that the electrical conduit for proposed street lights and building accent lighting would not interfere with the pipeline, the local area damage prevention specialist was brought-in when the topic arose of crossing the buried pipeline with heavy equipment, and HTE’s integrity engineers conducted load calculations and reviewed boring plans to ensure that the pipeline was not at risk of being struck. After compiling all of their notes, HTE held a round-table meeting with the client to review the plans one last time and to formulate a united opinion which would be used to guide discussions with the developer. The client ensured that no stone was left unturned and voiced all of their concerns about the project upfront, and HTE’s engineers crossed their t’s and dotted their i’s to ensure that calculations and engineering recommendations were all in order.

Once the meeting had concluded, the engineering consultant reached-out to the developer just a few weeks after receiving the 106 page site plan and began discussions. From the outset, HTE repeatedly emphasized that their opinions came from a place of genuine concern for safety rather than an ‘us versus them’ mentality. The developer responded well to this approach and the dialogue was candid and honest. Emails were exchanged with the developer and their project engineer nearly every day, and several status meetings were held to ensure that both parties were aligned on their next steps with regards to the design review process. The engineering consultant was upfront when explaining the reasoning behind certain restrictions and requirements that the client had put into place, and the developer quickly came to understand and empathize with the concern expressed regarding certain proposed structures within the right of way. After a quick few weeks of discussion, the client received the final version of these plans which looked vastly different from where they had started; over a dozen concerning above ground features had been removed from the plan entirely, several utilities in close proximity to the pipeline were relocated, and the site drainage plan was completely re-designed.

After a short meeting with the client to review these new plans, the design was approved in its final form, and the engineering consultant reached out to the developer with a letter of approval for their project. In recent months, more designs have come from this developer with the pipeline operator’s requirements and restrictions already implemented resulting in far fewer hours spent reviewing and discussing the project before approval. In fact, the project engineer who worked with HTE on these designs asked to be put back onto the developer’s next project in the same area so that they could continue the good rapport they had built both with the engineering consultant and the pipeline operator.

Within the design review program, HT Engineering has aimed not only to ensure increased safety but to raise public awareness about the reality of working and building near pipelines. Through genuine and open interactions, this pipeline operator has come to earn the respect of many local engineering firms as well as several state-level transportation departments. A foundation of mutual respect and trust has been forged between the design reviewer and submitter, resulting in submitters who are now much more receptive to feedback and are willing to abide by this operator’s restrictions. HT Engineering is excited about what the future holds for this client’s design review program, and the design review team is eager to take on the next project that comes across their desk.